Opinion
Page 4
University Daily Kansan, October 7, 1982
Tuition stats heartening
Graduate teaching and research assistants are worrying about their jobs, the library is cutting acquisitions and faculty morale is said to be at an all-time low. Nevertheless, the cost of an education at the University of Kansas appears to be a pretty good bargain.
So saith the latest stats gathered from among Big Eight Conference universities.
The news is not exactly startling. But it is a bit of reassurance amid the continuing deluge of frightening tales of state- and University-wide fiscal woe.
Of the eight conference schools, only the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University offered cheaper tuition than KU for 15 hours of class credit. KU's tuition dropped this fall because the bonds for Wescoe Hall and Watkins Memorial Hospital were retired.
Next semester, however, tuition will rise 20 percent. This, and the likelihood that the other universities will increase tuition also, make it hard to say where KU will stand in the Big Eight this
spring, or next year. So long as the economy continues to worsen, it will drive tuition costs up.
Talking about the statistics, Robert Cobb, KU executive vice chancellor, attributed the state's tradition of keeping tuition at a minimum to "a strong egalitarianism in the state of Kansas." It is a tradition worth preserving, despite what some gubernatorial candidates have been saying.
Kansas has often had to stand up to defend its policy of open admission, which allows every graduate of a state high school at least the chance to attend college. But there are more ways to render that policy ineffective than to raise admission standards. Low tuition rates have encouraged students, from within Kansas and without, to seek an education they could not have afforded in other states.
We all need to work together — faculty, students, legislators — to ensure that these students may continue to turn to Kansas for the most important of democratic ideals — equal access to knowledge.
Peace Corps not typical job, but could be great adventure
A 13-year-old Costa Rican girl, whose grandmother lived in New York, once asked Peace Corps volunteer Dana Hamm whether New York was near the United States.
Hamm could not believe the question. The girl was not stupid — just isolated from the world in a small Costa Rican town where the indoor water tower is located over river water to the house during the rainy season.
In this setting, like so many other countries served by the Peace Corps, Hamm spent 1978 to 1982 in India.
LISA GUTIERREZ
State University graduate, a satisfying experience.
This week, Peace Corps volunteer recruiters are on campus to try to add numbers to the approximately 85,000 volunteers who have served in two-year programs since the corps' inception in 1961 during the Kennedy administration.
Although recruiters admittedly suggest that the corps is not for everyone, it is still a post-graduation alternative that should become even more attractive, given the tight job market.
The rewards of Peace Corps service are intangible.
"I definitely changed. When I came back I looked at things differently," Hamm said. "There was a kind of reverse culture shock when I got back.
"I was prepared to go to Costa Rica; the Peace Corps performed me well, and I knew a little bit about the culture. But when I got home I couldn't everything that had gone up while I was gone."
What Hamm experienced in Costa Rica was something akin to a cultural exchange. She found that the people she was working with thought that all Americans were materialistic and had tons of money. Hamm opened their eyes.
Susan Boorse, corps recruiter, said, "Even though you may not be doing anything with our group," she added.
"We're there to lend them technical assistance, but also to let them know about our culture."
Whether our culture is accepted depends on the country the volunteer is serving in. Former volunteers have said that the people they served did not appreciate what the Peace Corps did for them. Because of this, they found their service unatisfying.
But Boorse said that what Peace Corps volunteers get out of their work was equal to what they got in.
Dedication — and flexibility — are prerequisites
The dedication involves living on a small living stibend, as Hamm did, in a country where the
homes may not have heat or air conditioning. Flexibility figures in if volunteers don't get to serve in the country they checked as a preference on their applications.
The volunteer placement process takes anywhere from six to 12 months. Boorse said that every June 1, the corps is inundated with volunteers fresh out of school and ready to take off a foreign country. "But it is too late then," she warned.
All 50 developing countries that the corps serves have asked the United States for assistance. The countries are fairly evenly divided among Africa, Asia and Latin America.
What these countries need primarily is technical assistance. For this reason, the corps has a high demand for students with backgrounds in mathematics, science or agriculture.
"I think the Peace Corps has grown up," Boorse said. The corps has gone through cycles where idealists wanting to serve their fellow man constituted the majority of applicants to where the corps would accept only people with technical backgrounds.
"Now, we have a mixture of the two," she said. "Volunteers are not surely altruistic."
Corps volunteers are finding that service gives them a chance to travel, learn a new language and sharpen the skills they already possess. Too, their training is very specific. Like him can only try to describe for others
As a recruiter, Hamm will be interviewing applicants in 2237 Carruth-O'Leary Hall tomorrow with Boose. The two hope to bolster corps of officers who suffered recently from a lack of public awareness.
This lack occasionally hampers recruiting efforts.
Boorse said students on smaller campuses that may be more religion-oriented showed more support for the corps than those at many larger universities. Recruiters will spend much of their fallcampaign on campuses in Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska and Kansas.
Kansas people appear short on enthusiasm for the Peace Corps. According to Boorse, of the approximately 5,000 volunteers now serving, those from Kansas number only in the 20s.
Or perhaps they, like many who have walked by the information table this week without a second glance, are not ready to forsake whatever comfort it has taken them this long to
KANSAN
The University Daily
People don't join the Peace Corps to make money. Other than the living stipend, which is contingent upon what country a volunteer serves in, the only monetary compensation is $775 for Peace Corps places in an account in the United States. This fund helps ease the transition back home.
So, if you are looking for a well-paying job come May, pay no heed to the Peace Corps
If, however, you are ready for a challenging growth experience, look into the peace Corps, an organization that trains young people.
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Costs rise as credit hours drop
The economy is weaving yet another vicious circle around KU students.
In a time when enrollment costs are skyrocketing and available student aid is plummeting, the number of students at the University has increased, albeit by only 410.
But despite this increase, the FTE, the full-time equivalent enrollment figure, has declined. The FTE is calculated by dividing the number of credit hours by the average full-time course loads for undergraduate, graduate and law students. The FTE dropped by 70, from 22,020 last fall to 21,950 this fall, according to Gil Dvck. dean of educational services.
In simpler terms, the average course load for an undergraduate student at KU dropped from 14.86 to 14.65 hours. And this reduction could back of state funds for the 1984-85 school year.
The news keeps getting worse. State revenue for the first quarter of the 1982 fiscal year fell $14 million shy and signaled the potential for further budget cuts at the University. Gov. John Carlin said he would postpone any decision on additional cutbacks until Nov. 12.
The cost of getting a college education has never been higher. Granted, our tuition this year was down a few dollars, but it's scheduled to take a healthy jump again next year. The cost of living in Lawrence is taking a bigger-than-ever decrease. The cost of federal student aid is being cut back each year.
While we're paying more, we're getting less. Carlin's 4 percent budget cut pervades every facet of campus life — professors without students; staff — give the students syllabuses, crowded classes.
Many students this semester were shut out of classes that they needed to graduate. The response to their complaints: "Go to school an extra semester; it's no big deal."
A semester of school costs several thousand dollars, and that's taking into account merely
tution, books and room and board. That doesn't
utilize, food, clothing, gas, medical
expenses.
So the student works, if he's lucky enough to find a part-time or even a full-time job on campus or in the community. Some qualify for work-study jobs, which are easier to find because they are so difficult to be eligible for, and which limit the amount the student may earn. Others have parents who make a little too much to qualify for grants and funding, but a small amount will fall for school. Still others have parents who lie on their income tax returns for quality aid.
Most student jobs are those that offer odd
TRACEE HAMILTON
hours and low wages, although there are exceptions. And the student who enrolled in 18 hours at the beginning of the semester flunks his first test in biology because he delivered pizzas the night before. He drops the class. Sometimes he drops another.
He finds himself cutting out the luxuries, like magazine subscriptions, sporting events, meals out, concerts, a new winter coat. And still he finds himself in debt. Sometimes, his credit reputation is ruined before he's even gotten his first paycheck from his first real job.
Help for the job-hunting student, however, may be in sight.
Student body president David Adkins, representing the University as well as the student advisory committee of the Board of Regents and the Associated Students of Kansas, appeared before the Legislative Educational Planning Committee on Student Employment Issues to
discuss the problems of students who need to work.
Adkins proposed a state work-study program that would provide matching funds to employers who hired students for campus jobs or jobs in their area of study.
The proposal makes several valid observations — that learning while learning is a preferred form of student assistance, and that, with the current financial climate at the University, the student is suffering the brunt of the budget cuts.
The only students eligible under the proposed program, however, are those students eligible for the Guaranteed Student Loan Program. And students who need to financial need, and to residents of Kansas
Adkins makes several legitimate arguments, and the solution is an acceptable one. But, again, the students left out of this plan are those that fall in that hazy area between qualification for GSLs and the ability to pay for an education without any aid. Further, high tuition already requires a graduate enrollment. The University must not forget the contributions made by out-of-state students.
But long before this proposal might be approved, the predicted drop in the FTE could reduce the University's 1984-85 budget. The Legislature bases state funding on the total revenues of all employees of Mann, University director of institutional research and information systems, said the amount of money the University received from the Legislature for a credit hour depended on the area and level of the credit hour. The spring semester's crucial factor in determining funding, he said.
If the economy continues on the downswing and the University is forced to make further budget reductions, a decrease in the FTE will be needed, but again, the students will be paying more for less.
Letters to the Editor
More to gun control than hard-liners admit
To the Editor:
Americans seem to be obsessed with their own rights — even at gunpoint. The gun control opponent is often as fanatical about his or her right to own a gun as the proponent is about his or her right to a safe life. One hard-liner reacts against the other. But what paranoid Americans tend to forget is that gun control does not necessarily mean hannibal all guns.
Recently, a friend purchased a handgun from a Kansas gun shop. Before receiving his gun, he was required to complete a purported safety form on which one of the questions asked whether he had ever been admitted to an asylum. My friend happened to answer honestly, and, after he signed the form, the gun was put into his hand. Easy.
The speed of the whole process made me wonder whether a waiting period — such as 30 days — between purchase and delivery would cause more criminals to hit the police department to enforce sanctions.
Anyway, the point is: there are as many methods of gun control as there are guns and safety-minded people willing to use their imaginations. Both pro-gun and anti-gun groups could preserve their own rights, and all would be forced to ensure that only law-abiding people have guns.
Kansas City. Kan., graduate student
Tim Doolittle
Emcee's show cliche
To the Edition
"Who is Tom Roberts, and what is be doing on stage?" I kept asking myself as I watched the Parents' Day Bob Hope show Saturday. "What is the show about? What is of the show, Roberts contoured up memories of Bill
Murray's parody of a low-rent nightclub entertainer on "Saturday Night Live."
The rest of the KU talent sparkled, and Roberts's rapid-fire impersonations were, for the most part, very well done. He would have made a fine addition to the show as just that, a heckler, a bit more polished than an exec, he kept up an impersonation — that of an overly corny, verbally pushy embye.
The slow reached its low point when he asked how many of "you folks out there in the audience" were from Memphis (where some members of Bob Hope's crew had been stranded). Meager applause prompted Roberts, a KU junior, to say things like, "Hey, folks, don't get me wrong. I've got nothing against Memphis, but . . ." This man was just one giant cliché!
Wise up, KU. If you wish to showcase this University's talent, get your time frame straight. Roberts's style went out with Wink Martindale and his 1990. I just hope all those KU parents don't think Mount Oread is lost in a time warp.
Marty Wall Kansas City, Kan., freshman
Figures don't matter
I would like to reply to a letter to the editor titled "Holocaust figures off," which appeared
To the Editor:
There is basically no difference between Hitler's brutal acts and those of the Phalanges last week. Do you think that if there were a million Palestinians in those camps they would have been spared? I personally believe that they would have killed whatever quantity there were in those camps, whether in the hundreds or millions
Phalanges killed innocent Palestinians, and you will not be able to justify their actions by saying that the Palestinians who died were much fewer than the Jews.
The Beirut massacre was a "petty Holocaust" and the Phalangines were "Hitters." No one will ever be able to justify or deny it.
Just as Hitler killed innocent Jews, the
As for the Israeli, I find no words to describe them. it seems they hated Hitler so much that he
But watch out! Those little Hitlers can grow and we should not let the past be repeated.
Antonia Smith Lawrence freshman
If you want to see poor
To the Editor:
Cathy Behny thinks she's poor. . . why, Cathy behny my cat of the mice she catches, am busy producing my own methane to heat the house as winter and clean up the gym. . . Andrew deValpine
Prairie Village senior
Letters Policy
The University Daily Kansan welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be typewritten, double-spaced and should not exceed 500 words. They should include the writer's name, address and phone number. If the writer is affiliated with the University, the letter should include his class and home town or faculty or staff position. The Kansas reserves the right to edit or reject letters.