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Opinion
University Daily Kansan. September 15, 1982
Watkins worth the cost
The economy is sparing nothing these days.
David Ambler, vice chancellor for student affairs, announced yesterday that unless changes were imminent at Watkins Memorial Hospital, the student health center could not continue operating next year.
This news should alarm students and faculty who depend on Watkins for reasonably priced medical care. Many students, particularly those no longer covered by parents' medical insurance, simply cannot afford private health care.
The hard times hitting Watkins are not unique. Some schools are turning to student health co-ops in order to continue providing medical care. Although these co-ops are cheaper than private care, their services cost students considerably more than Watkins.
For example, at Indiana University, students must pay $20 a semester to join the health co-op. This entitles them to free visits and discounts on some services such as X-rays and blood tests. Nevertheless, for two visits for a simple sprained ankle, co-op members are charged $35 and other students are charged $63. For KU
students, the same visit likely would be free, unless X-rays or other tests were required.
To keep Watkins Hospital open, several options have been suggested. One would be to shorten hours and close on weekends. But this would cut into emergency care and would further complicate problems caused by long waiting lines.
Another suggestion is to limit the number of free visits for students and to raise rates for some services. In moderation, this probably would be acceptable. A limit of 10 or 15 free visits a semester might be reasonable. And it should BE OK to charge small fees for some services, such as weight counseling, that are not medically necessary.
The University may have to raise student health fees ($51 this year). Certainly, students would be more willing to shell out for such basic services than for athletic department subsides or even increased Student Senate fees.
If students hope to continue receiving low-priced medical care, they will have to let the administration know they are willing to support reasonable changes needed to keep Watkins open.
My roommate looked exasperated as he plumed his lanky frame down on the couch. Sweat rolled down his forehead, his cheeks were flushed and the scowl on his face made me tread with care concerning any questions I might have had.
Taking walk across campus can be harrowing experience
"Bad day, bh?", I asked in a deferential tone.
"Oh jeesh," he said. "I don't think I ever go over that." (I can't stop laughing.)
"What, you try and cross the street, and some manerer to use you for target practice?"
"Worse, I tried to go to class. "Huh?"
"I was walking down Jayhawk Boulevard, you know, hustling to make my 39:30 class. You
TOM GRESS
"Did you sign?
stops me in front of the horte and koaws bears by a despotic aborigine leader in a small corner of eastern Australia."
"Are you kidding? The only thing I know about koala bears is that they used to be in airline ads. I told the guy, 'Sir, I'm very sorry about your koala bears, but I am late for my physics class and I have homework to turn in, so I must go.'"
"That's a nice way of saying no.
"Yeah, that's what I thought until I turned around and started to run to class. He ran after me, tackled me and put me in a halfelson. Then he told me I had to sign his petition and give him all my money so he could send it to the Koala Bear Liberation Front."
"Sounds rough. Where were the campus police during all this?"
"Guarding the flower beds."
"Great cops."
"After I sign the petition and give him all my money, he lets me go. I make it through my classes OK, but then I go over to the Kansas Union."
"What happened there?"
"Well, I went to cash a check, but there were students standing in front of the entrance staging
mock executions. They wanted me to sign their petition and give them money, too."
"The Students for the Overthrow of Any Despicable Regime in the Western Hemisphere. Not only did they want my signature and my money, but they wanted me to be part of a mock execution. I told them, 'I'm sorry for all the oppressed people of the Western Hemisphere, but I only came over here to cash a check and get a Boke. I can't think there is much I can do for the oppressed people since I don't know where they are, but I'll be sure to look for them when I read the papers and watch the television news.'"
"Are you kidding? They gang-tacked me and forced me to sign my name with a pen clenched between my teeth and took my Visa card. Then they bound my hands and feet, blinded them and started firing cap guns at me. They told me to give me the feeling of the death sounds."
"Maybe you are too much a nice guy. Maybe next time you should say, 'Look you thugy, and get my signature and take my money and I'll brain you with your posters.'"
'And I suppose this didn't stop them?'
"Yesh, well I wish I'd thought about that before it happened the third time."
"Yep. I finally gripped free from the mock executions and headed for Strong Hall to turn in a drop slip. But outside Strong, the KU Out of Penaeoca, Fla." committee was demonstration.
"Three times in one day?"
"No. They wanted me to carry a poster saying that the KU Endowment Association is contributing to the poverty of workers in Pensacola by investing in slave-aborative groves. I said, 'I'm very sorry about the poverty of workers in Pensacola.' I'll list of a better Ted Seymour about this disgrace first thing in the morning, but right now I've got to get this drop slip into Window Four before 5 p.m., or I will 'W on my transcript and the Stanford law school won't accept me.' "
"And they wanted your signature and Mobil charge card, right?"
"they banged me over the head with a bag of oranges and told me I was an establishment jerk for going to Stanford instead of organizing orange grove workers."
"What next?"
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The University Daily KANSAN
Legislated prayer loses all meaning
I was not being blasphemous. I had been taught what a womb was. My mother was often pregnant and I did not believe in fairy tales. So it made sense to my young mind that the fruit of Mary's womb would be grapes. The metaphor was lost on my childish mind.
When I started kindergarten in my local public school, I wasn't afraid; I just figured that school would be an extension of the things I was used to, a collection of new books to read and new friends to make.
What I didn't expect was the structure. The first thing we did was learn the Pledge of Allegiance. The most important thing, I guess, was to make these kids patriotic — it was a fun exercise.
The Pledge of Allegiance turned out to be fun; every day someone got the honor of holding the flag. Then we would all recite, in the strongest of voices:
"Hail Mary, full of grapes, the lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. Holy Mary, the Lord is our sinners now and at the hour of our death."
"I pledge a legion, to the flag, of the United States of America, and to the Republican Richard Stands. One nation, under God invisible, with liberty and justice for all."
Saying the Pledge of Allegiance was fun; I enjoyed it. But understanding it was another
The salute said we were also pledging to Richard Stauds, Republican, and that God was
No. those weren't types. To me, I was waxing regions of men with Pledge furniture cleaner for months.
Well, that was OK, too. One of the first prayers we learned in this private school was the Hail Mary. I thought this was fun, too, and recited elementarily:
So, although the Illinois school system tried to make me patriotic, it failed miserably.
When President Reagan, Phyllis Schlaffy, the Moral Major and various and sundry other groups and individuals advocate bringing back prayer to the schools, I just laugh.
Then my parents, staunch Catholics that they were, decided my education should include religious instruction. So, for the next eight years, we would spend our day, and start each morning with prayers.
The private school system failed as miserably as did the public school system.
Unfortunately, this usually makes me look like a heathen. Anyone can ask, "Do you think there
should be prayer in schools so that we can give then reading, writing, arithmetic and morals?" One would be foolish to answer, "No, I don't think there should be prayer in the schools."
They can always retract, "Then you don't care if your children have anymals. right?"
Wrong. I would like my children to have some religious training and have some morals, too. I'm sure that most parents would say that they want their children to have morals — not too many people are interested in raising future thieves and murderers.
But prayer does not be in public schools simply because the New Right wants to better
CATHERINE BEHAN
America by turning to God, because small children, for the most part, do not understand
I do not think it did much for my character to find out that Marv was full of grapes.
Certainly the country is in a bad way. Infation is rampant, unemployment is high, and, some say, our youth is degenerate. For many people, the being to be turned to, and that is fine — for them.
For these people, majority or not, to force their remedies on all neonis are ridiculous.
The 1982 Supreme Court decision that barred prayer from public schools made it clear that anyone who wished to pray silently was welcome to. What it wanted to avoid was forcing students, by coercion, to pray. The decision did not say why prayer had been allowed or how prayers outside the door.
When I was in kindergarten, in 1965, students were not forced by law to say the Pledge of Allegiance. However, my teacher neglected to tell us that on the first day of school when we all recited the phrases without comprehending them. I suppose that she did not think we would understand that we had the right not to speak those words.
And she was right. Students that young do not have that ability. As a result, the Court left the decision of religious training to the parents. My parents chose to send me to a private school. Others could instruct their children to say quiet grace before lunch.
The proposed amendment might bring Reagan more votes on a popularity scale, but it would not, as supporters believe, bring the problems of Mr. Bush to a stop or even stop the decline of rallegion in America.
I think it is very unlikely that "a moment of voluntary prayer," as Reagan said, will make any significant contribution to the religious life of these children.
People are interested in organized religion now more than in recent years, yet many people who now go to church regularly did not pray in their public schools.
Even more incredible are the facts that more people support this amendment than go to church regularly, and that many Christian publications such as the Christian Century have come out against putting prayer back into public education curricula.
The proposed amendment would state, supporters say, that parents, if they wanted to, could keep their progeny from praying in the same room. The proposed amendment would be left out and almost unknown to their peers.
The one prayer I did comprehend totally when I was young was a simple one: "Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to kill myself." For many people and Murphy (my dogs), and all the people who have helped or hurt me today."
One girl who went to our Catholic school was the only Jew in the school. She was never outcast because of her religion, but she barely got to see her because she was always leaving the room and going out.
Now, granted, her parents chose that for her; she did not have to go to that school. But it exemplifies the reason to not put children through this — it leaves them out of what the rest, or at least the majority of the others, are doing.
Putting prayer, even "voluntary" prayer, back into the schools would put an implied religious pressure on the child who does not read and especially in a school predominantly of one faith.
This amendment helps Reagan politically where he needs help, among Roman Catholic blue-collar voters and the New Night, which has made Reagan has failed to make a stand on its net issues.
my mother always sat with me while I said this and would help me with the words, or the feelings, or whom to thank that night. It was at home that mom — and that is where prayers should stay.
Letters to the Editor
College also merits credit for new advising
To the Editor:
I was gratified by the recent expression of editorial interest in the efforts of the University Daily Kansan to strengthen advising and mentoring relationships for undergraduate students. Catherine Behan's Sept. 1 editorial column, "improved advising promises more personalized attention," did an excellent job of describing many of the concerns that have shaped the department's attention on advising systems. I applaud the Kansan's interest in this important topic.
Because the editorial did not specifically discuss the role of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in the undergraduate advising process, I consider it essential to emphasize the vigorous leadership role that the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences played this summer in the colleges of undergraduate advisers, Michael Young, associate dean, was instrumental in the identification of significantly more undergraduate advisers, in working with summer orientation students, and in providing information for advisers. Because the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences advises the great majority of students in the strong stand of the administrators in the college has been a key factor in working toward
a more personalized and effective academic advising system. Kanda Dubnick has worked closely with Young. She and I share the view that his creativity and sense of academic integrity have contributed enormously to this important effort.
Greek programs differ
Thank you again for your interest in this matter.
Deanell Reece Tacha
To the Editor
We feel the need to respond to the letter by Adrienne Christiansen in the Sept. 8 Kanas, which labeled the Little Sisters programs of fraternities as "wife-training." The problem we address does not deal with other fraternities' Little Sisters programs, which happen to be voluntary efforts by all parties involved. The problem is that some people automatically stereotype Greeks as being members of one big fraternity. They fail to realize that every fraternity is different, just as each member is a separate entity within his own house.
Each fraternity runs its Little Sisters program differently. The program at our fraternity is not the one-sided, "polygamist" affair that Christiansen would like to think it is. The purposes behind the program are truly noble. Members on both sides are asked to take time to get to know each other in the hope of becoming friends. The strength of this fraternity's program rests upon the effort given by each of its members, and its success is reflected by the genuine friendships between the friendly women that have developed over the years.
Kip Elliott, Greg Nichols Little Sisters chairmen Sigma Chi Fraternity
Letters policy
The University Daily Kanan welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be typewritten, double-spaced and 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 the class and home town or faculty or staff position. The Kanan reserves the right to edit or reject letters.
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