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Opinion
University Daily Kansan, September 16, 1982
Lack of representation
Students riding a KU on Wheels bus this semester are paying higher fares, fares that went into effect without the Student Senate's approval.
Steve McMurry, coordinator of the transportation board, had a simple explanation for the mistake. "We should have gone through the Senate but we didn't," he said yesterday.
A simple explanation, but not acceptable.
The board, a semi-autonomous agency of the Senate, prepared its budget this summer, and it was scheduled to be discussed at an August meeting of the Senate Executive Committee.
However, David Adkins, student body president, said McMurray was out of town the day of the meeting, and the budget did not get introduced. When McMurry came back, he forwarded the budget to the office of student affairs, which approved it. Adkins did not discover the error until recently.
The fare increase may be necessary, but implementing it without the supervision of the Senate robbed the students of the representation the Senate was formed to provide.
The Senate is now in a no-win situation. Adkins said no senator should vote for the budget when the Senate considers it Tuesday merely because it already is in effect. But voting to refund the money this semester could bring an end to bus service.
Adkins' suggestion that fares be lowered next semester to make up for the error might be an easy solution, but it would not be fair to the students who paid the higher fare this semester.
The Senate should find out how this error happened, and tighten its control over the semi-autonomous boards to ensure the problem will not occur again.
Students, especially the thousands who are paying the higher fare, deserve at least this much.
KU Parking Services shows no mercy in collecting fines
They caught me again.
These devilish Parking Service people found my poor dented Olds under a lovely drooping elm tree on scenic Memorial Drive on one of those gorgeous autumn afternoons when you can sit by the window with a bright orange. A sticky yellow ticket under my windshield wiper totally ruined the picturesque scene.
Maybe this wasn't such a big deal; after all, everyone gets tickets, right?
But I had just completed a grueling task that accompanied several years and hundreds of
TRACEE HAMILTON
dollars. I had totally paid my debt to society through Parking Services, patch
And it was no small debt, either. The bill that I finally erased at enrollment was only $40, but several before that were none too pleasant. At one time Iowed them my soul, my first-born — and $400
Oh, they're clever, those Parking Service folks. They simply sent a nice letter to my parents informing them of my heinous crime against the University. After all, the office explained to me when I called to scream, "We couldn't find you. What else were we to do?"
Driving my parents to an early grave from shock was not my idea of a great solution, but so much worse.
My question is, when does the University begin construction of the Tracee Hamilton Memorial Chapel?
Seriously, I feel as if I have a big investment in Parking Services. I want to be on the Parking Board. I want to have some input. I want to be a stockholder.
Barring the realization of that far-fetched wish, I deserve at least to know where my money has gone. I mean, for that amount of money, I could have paid for a semester of schooling, or winter clothes, or two months' rent, or for the abolition of strife, hunger and disease.
Well, I discovered that according to the 1982-83 budget, permits bring in 40.5 percent of Parking Services budget. Fines amass a hefty 38.6 percent of the total.
And, I'll sleep better tonight. My money—and
I was further abashed to learn that, according to Kearns, there aren't many students or faculty who pull the same boners I did in parking themly.
the money of hundreds of other students — went to build a new parking lot for Oliver Hall, and for lt maintenance, painted road stripes, signs, cost of operations, snow removal, printing and patrols, according to Don Kearns, director of the school's offices, however, take up $4.6 percent that total.
"There are not that many that are getting tickets daily or weekly," Kearns said. "There are people who don't want to buy a permit and take their chances. And they get caught."
They certainly do. And all the games in the world won't work, believe me.
Timing the rounds of the guys in the baby blue golf carts won't work. A note under the wiper that says you're sick, or that you're battery is dead, or that you'll only be a minute, won't work.
And once you get the ticket, any appeal is worthless. It only delays the inevitable. I never bothered to appeal; my excuse was that I worked until 1 or 2 a.m., and didn't feel like trooping across campus from the Rape Zone to my car. They'd never buy something like that.
Lest you think Parking Services is full of fascists, I did meet some very nice people during my dealings there. When my bill grew to gargantuan proportions, I talked to the women in my club and told them that they were letting me pay just part of my tab. They were definitely the highlight of my delinquency.
Despite my poor track record with Parking Services, I don't dispute the fact that I broke the law, to speak I don't begrudge the Oliver and his friends. I don't. I don't resent every rallied pothole on caravans.
I do wish, however, that Parking Services could come up with a more humane way of dealing with students. For example, if part of the money from my tickets had gone to the university, I would not have many departments on campus that can no longer afford to photocopy syllabuses. I feel better.
Well, that's hardly feasible. But I firmly believe that the cost of parking tickets could be reduced slightly. A 87 bath for parking illegally is ridiculous. $12.50 after two weeks is indurous.
Students are paying more each semester — to live, to go to school, and to park. And Parking Services has one huge advantage over the University — it is self-supporting. In a time of budget crises, at least if Parking Services runs out of money, it has no one to blame but itself.
Campus cyclists are a dangerous lot
The chicken crossing the road in the Atari video game, Lawrence residents and KU students share a common predicament.
They all must artfully dodge moving vehicles when trying to walk to the other side of the car.
The chicken is lucky. The moving vehicles he must avoid are only electronic, and if he gets hit, he is simply stunned and sent back to the street
KU students are not so lucky. The mad bicyclists and sputtering mopes must avoid when crossing Jayhawk Boulevard are definitely can cause more than just a momentary setback
Just ask Paul Stanfield.
Stanfield was injured last Thursday when his bicycle ran into a pedestrian at the corner of Naimshi Drive and Crescent Road. Stanfield suffered head injuries and had to be transferred from Lawrence Memorial Hospital to the University of Kansas Medical Center. The pedestrian involved in the accident did not require medical treatment.
The pedestrian was crossing Crescent Road, and Stanfield was approaching from the east, when the accident occurred. They did not see each other before impact.
semester — many are not aware of Kansas laws."
"We do not need any more accidents like that," said L.J. Leanne Longaker of the KU Police Dept.
This accident was unusual, in that the cyclist was the one who sustained injuries. Nonetheless, it points to the dangers of cyclist meeting pedestrian — something both Longaker and Don Dalquest, with the administrative bureau of the Lawrence Police Department, call a recurring problem that is worse at the beginning of each school year.
Bicyclists and moped riders in the city and on campus are not observing the rules of the road.
"We have received numerous complaints over the last two weeks about bicycles and mopeds not observing crosswalks and stop signs," Longaker said. "I think it is true in the fall
And those Kansas laws that so many bicyclists are not aware of are the same ones that apply to vehicles. Too often, in their rush to get to that 10:30 calculus class or 1:30 chemistry lecture, bicyclists forget that they, too, are expected to stop at stop signs and pedestrian crossings.
"That is one of the biggest problems we have right now, and that is by bicyclists don't observe
LISA GUTIERREZ
traffic laws," Dalquest said. "We do have problems at the beginning of the school (year)." And when you stop them they say, 'Well, I realize we had to follow the rules of the road.'
One of the rules that is being so flagrantly violated both on campus and in the downtown Lawrence area is that the pedestrian has the right-of-way at a marked crosswalk. Cars must stop for people in the crosswalk — so, too, must bicycles and mooeds.
"If they (pedestrians) cross in the middle of the block, they do not have the right-of-way. But cars can be ticketed for failure to yield at a marked crosswalk. And, of course, if they hit the pedestrian, they would really be liable," said Dalmuest.
"For the most part, vehicles do not observe the crosswalks. We do ticket, but it isn't something we set up on, like at school crosswalks. But if a patrolman is going along and sees a violation, he can report."
And those motorists, be car or on a bicycle or moped, who carelessly cruise through the marked crosswalks on Jayhawk Boulevard or anywhere else on campus, are risking tickets
from the KU Police Department. But this possibility is not enough to deter moped riders and bicyclists who continually endanger pedestrians when they fail to yield the right-of-way.
The pedestrians in such situations are not staying quiet. They are complaining, and loudly, to KU police, who longlaster received a call from the mayor, whose mobsided mpeps that did not, observe, crosswalks.
"With the close mishaps and the accident last week, the officers will be putting special emphasis on bicyclists and moped riders," Lonaker said.
So be forewarned, you with the sun in your face, wind in your hair, and feet on the pedals of a brand new 10-speed. Pedestrians are no longer easy targets.
"Pedestrians, for the most part, look out for themselves," Longaker said. "And I think we need to have them stay alert to bicycles and mopeds."
Pedestrians are generally aware that cars are not going to slow down, even at marked crosswalks, Dalquest said. And it is this knowledge that has prevented the many injury accidents that could have occurred had pedestrians not been so careful.
The present problem, both on campus and citywide, stems not so much from vehicles but from the bicyclists, Longaker and Dalquej concurred. However, at the end of last semester, Longaker said, KUPD had problems with the crosswalk leading from Murphy Hall to Allen Fieldhouse, between Sunnyside and Irving Hill Road. Several complaints about cars not stopping in the crosswalk led to police and the issuance of several traffic tickets. The problem was quickly alleviated.
It's hard to believe that it takes legal recourse — in the form of a traffic citation — to make sure that KU students are not plowed over crossing Jawhak Boulevard.
Our concern is that someone will be seriously inured, "Longaker said.
Their concern is all too real.
From private satellites to commercial courts
Rv DICK WEST
United Press International
WASHINGTON (UPI) — Last week in Texas a pioneering satellite company successfully launched its first rocket, thereby opening the space age to commercial investment.
These truly are heady times for disciples of the private enterprise system.
we have a couple of firms challenging the postal service in the express mail field, a tuition credit plan that would give a big boost to private schools, and at least one state experimenting with privately owned penal institutions.
If incursions into what have traditionally been responsibilities of the public sector agree with your own political philosophy, I'm sure you can envision other government areas that com-
One step that appears inevitable to me is the development of a private inboundy system.
to the peace, our courts historically have been governmental entities. Yet, at least until it is tried, who is to say that a privately run court system wouldn't do the job better?
There are, as I see it, two basic approaches that might be taken. One is the quasi-monopoly method under which a company would be held responsible for to operate audiary system in a certain area.
To get some idea of how the privilidary system might work, let's invent a mythical enterprise — the Amalgamated Magistrative and Storm Door Do. — and set it up in business.
Starting out on a small scale, Amalgamated first bids for, and is awarded, a license to operate a civil court system in Clods County, N.M.
From justices of the Supreme Court to justices
At that level, the firm mainly adjudicates divorce cases and damage suits. But subsequently, it also gets jurisdiction over criminal counties. Now it is ready for condensation.
As its next venture, Amalgamated arranges a
merger with the Acme Judiciary and Aluminum Siding Corp., which has a statewide contract. From that power base, the firm then seeks to build a subsidiary that automoses Company of America.
Freestone, as you already may have presumed, has authority over federal cases, the very foot in the door that Amalagamated-Ame is seeking. There is a nasty stock fight, which ends with Freestone acquiring majority control of the would-be predators. But all is not entirely rosy.
The new corporate structure is legally attacked by the Antirust and Bagel Manufacturers Association headed by Ralph Nader. It obtains a decree from the Southern Circuit Corp. forcing Preston Amanagalmed-Krone to divest itself of all its lower courts.
Under the second approach, open competition would.
On second thought, let's just stick to
the first approach.
Dick West is a columnist for United Press International.
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