WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2011
PAGE 5
THE UNIVERSITY DARY KANSAN
The sorority girl behind me in class – “He is really cute but he is only 15,” WOW!
opinion
The thought in my head: No class
till 2 p.m., party all day, party all
night! But what am I doing – watching
Halloween Town while smoking a
bowl, deleting Facebook friends.
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Do the members of our number one ranked Quidditch team get full-ride scholarships? Because they should.
Yeah, we are total wimps here during Kansas winters compared to Minnesota, but I look good in boots.
Hearing foreigners talk about the United States' obsession with Black Friday made me realize how messed up our society is.
So, after we beat KSU on Satur day, do we storm the field?
Our Quidditch team is ranked number one in the WORLD. Get on our level basketball!
My friend just asked me what I gained from hooking up with this hottie at the bar last night. Uhh, self esteem?
Nothing makes you look like you have no friends then taking pictures of yourself in a mirror.
You know what tests tell me about myself, nothing. You know what partying tells me about myself, that I'm a great time.
To the guy who tried riding his bike at full speed down the stairs, we all saw you face plant the ground.
To the Minnesota bragging about your winters, unless you played hockey with Gordon Bombay all winter, I don't want to hear about it. Ducks fly together eh?
Why isn't there a history of Kansas basketball class? I need an elective next semester.
My professor just called new discoveries in arcaeology "sexy" - reassurance that my sexy mummy Halloween costume will work like a charm
My bad, I thought Wifi on campus was something I paid for with my tuition and student fees. I guess getting it to work is an additional fee.
I see that all the non-engineers are jealous that they won't be making $70,000 right out of college.
I base my plans for the week end on what would make the best pictures.
Missouri has what? NO CHAMPI
ONSHIPS!
This is me being a good person and reminding everyone to pick up basketball tickets tomorrow! It's our favorite time of the year again.
That awkward moment when you wake up to your roommate and his girlfriend having sex on your arm.
It makes me happy that the FFA editor is a smart-ass.
Editor's note: It happens when you read bad, bad and ridiculously bad FEAs every day.
The Student Senate at University of Kansas is a strong governing body that stretches itself across the whole student campus spectrum, but after looking at its communication channels, the dissemination of information to the student body can be improved.
Student Senate must put pressure on external company
A reorganization of the Student Senate website was suggested to be the first step in establishing better communication with students this term.
We hoped Senate members would post the minutes of each Senate meeting on its website as soon as
possible for a reasonable amount of time, as well as keep current voting records up-to-date. However, the only voting records on the site date back to the 2009-2010 term and the latest minutes and legislative documents are from summer meetings.
In an email, Executive Secretary of Student Senate Alek Joyce explains that since a private company called the KERN group, a Lawrence-based marketing firm, originally produced the site, the site hasn't been easy to work with and has presented problems. Many HTML templates are corrupted and
EDITORIAL
members can't add new pages. Since Student Senate outreach director Brandon Woodard started his position this past summer, efforts have been made to fix the issues.
Joyce assures however that they will make any legislations, minutes, or voting records available to anyone who asks.
"The only problem we've had is with accessibility" he said. "And we are working as hard as possible to make our information accessible on our website."
Student Senate is showing a commitment to fixing this problem, but
we're now halfway into the semester, and minutes and voting records haven't been updated on the website. If Student Senate wants to emulate an official government, mass communication and social media connections with its constituents, students, should be a top priority. Fixing the communication problem needs a tight deadline.
Maybe the Senate needs to put more pressure on the KERN group to fix the minor difficulties, or maybe it needs to put more Senate members on the task with Woodard, but online communication
with students shouldn't remain broken for this extended period of time. Like any public body led by elected officials backed by voters, Senate leaders should treat the student body like their boss. And to be successful, keeping your boss informed is an essential part of your duties.
While the website design is finishing, its makeover, it should still be updated to reflect the latest decisions from Student Senate meetings, and it should be fixed soon.
AWARENESS
Domestic violence is a national problem
FFAs every day.
The other day a friend of mine showed me a Wordpress blog called "Break the Silence at Vassar". It is a website for anonymous posting of stories related to sexual assault and similar instances of personal violation at the college in Hudson Valley, N.Y.
The blog was created by a student group at Vassar called the Feminist Alliance for the purposes of creating a safe space for sharing personal experiences and bringing the issue to the surface.
Reading the entries gives you a sense of the anguish and trauma the victims deal with long after the actual instance of violence. It also serves as a grave reminder that these crimes don't happen to strangers in a far-away place—they happen to our friends, family, and peers.
It is important to remember while reading the blog to know that this issue isn't isolated at Vassar; this doesn't happen at a certain "type" of school or in a specific geographical area. This can happen and does happen at universities and colleges everywhere. College provides a unique setting for this type of violence, given our living environments, our average age group, and the dating atmosphere, and it is necessary for students to be aware of the risks.
This reality became all too apparent in our community with the murder of Jana Mackey in 2008, a Kansas law student who dedicated herself to activism and raising awareness about these very issues.
Precisely because it can happen to anyone, it's important to be aware of what this violence is. That is why some University student organizations have banded together to organize Domestic Violence Awareness Week for the past few years. This year DVAW starts on Mon., Oct. 24 with the annual Jana Mackey Distinguished Lecture keynote speech by Tony Porter, who will be speaking about men's role in ending violence against women.
In the spirit of awareness and education about these issues, I am continuing the discussion with a series of columns about domestic violence, sexual assault, and what goes on at college campuses. If these situations sound familiar, do not hesitate to seek help from Lawrence community services. And if you have specific issues you would like to see addressed in this series, please email me at kcosby@kansan.com.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AWARENESS WEEK OCT.24-28
Cosby is senior in English and political science from Overland Park. Follow her on Twitter @KellyCosby.
To read the posts from Vassar for yourself, go to breakthesilenceatvassar.wordpress.com
The Jana Mackey Distinguished Lecture Series featuring Tony Porter "Real Men, Real Talk." Monday, October 24, 2011 7:30 p.m. Woodruff Auditorium, Kansas Union
For more information on DVAW, find the Facebook event (Domestic Violence Awareness Week) on the Commission of the Status of Women page
Please use these community resources if you are experiencing or become aware of an incident of personal violation:
-For victims of domestic violence:
The Willow Domestic Violence Center
24 hour crisis hotline: 785-843-3333
www.willowdvcenter.org
-For victims of rape and sexual assault:
GaDuGi SafeCenter
1-888-899-2345: ask for GaDuGi Advocate to be paged
www.gadugisafecenter.org
LOCAL
'Occupy Lawrence' protestors need to understand laws
As I'm sure you've noticed, unless you've been buried under midterm study sessions, cities around the nation have been occupied. Not by an enemy power, à la "Red Dawn", but by a large group of upset, unemployed and/or disenfranchised Americans. It is now a national protest spanning from the original Occupy Wall Street to places such as this very college town. What they demand and protest against is, in the view of this writer, outrageous, uninformed and unattainable.
By Billy McCroy editor@kansan.com
difficult keeping everything straight. The laughable disorganization aside, the more extremist portions of the movement demand a living wage and a guaranteed living wage regardless of employment. A living wage is the idea that people should be given an amount of money from the government to live on, something akin to a minimum wage for being a citizen. The idea that some actually think this is possible or even a good idea is ridiculous and a slap in the face to hardworking Americans. If you think I'm going to pay my tax money to go toward your living wage, regardless of employment, you've got another think coming. Instead of draining the nation with this living wage, people should become productive members of the economy and lend themselves to growing the output this country relies on.
Before they start running an OccupyMcCroy house, let's look at some of their demands. However, therein lies the first problem with the movement. There are so many different so-called "factions", that it is
If I borrow money, I am expected
Stefanie Penn for Kansan Editorial
to pay it back; in the same fashion that I expect to get the money agreed upon, that I would receive. That is the very nature of a loan agreement, if FAFSA decided to not fulfill its student financial aid promises, students would become enraged, for good reasons. So the idea that those institutions and banks shouldn't be paid back goes against every reasonable borrowing practice.
Furthermore, any belief that the Federal Reserve System and its chairman Ben Bernanke acted against the interests of the United States or the economic/financial system of our country is absurd. I've suggested that perhaps a survey class of economics should be administered at these protests, yet I've seen reason to believe this hasn't been taken.
What this comes down to is one of life's hard truths. There is no such thing as a free lunch. The government doesn't owe any of us anything financially. We have to gain it through persistence, effort and a little luck. And this isn't a movement of new ideas; we're in a time where many of us are down on our luck and frustrated with our current situations. However, wasting time by marching for more regulation and a living wage is a complete waste of time. It is easy to look at people who aren't as hard hit by the crisis and resulting recession and want what they have; however, demanding that they are the reason for your individual problems is a misunderstanding of the situation or the result of a gross lack of personal reflection. So instead of occupying the streets of New York or Lawrence, perhaps people should occupy the library and classroom.
McCroy is a junior from Des Moines, Iowa
CAMPUS CHIRPS BACK
What was your favorite Nickelodeon show when you were a kid and why?
JonGoscha
@UDK_Opinion
Angry Beavers! I taught me to never trust an Angry
Beaver.
CARTOON
kaitlynbutko
@UDK. Opinion Rocket
Power was the greatest
show of all time.
yourargumentisinvalid
chrysodis
I believe NCLB has created a more stressful teachers environment, and that creates more stressed students. If a school does not make AYP three years in a row in a Title 1 school, a student's parents may school-of-choice their student or obtain a tutor for their student at the schools cost. The targets for AYP are too high for certain groups within schools to obtain and this is not fair to schools, teachers or students. Student anxiety levels are higher than ever because of school mandated testing required by the No Child Left Behind Act.
As university students who will one day be parents and/or teachers we have a duty to understand the No Child Left Behind Act. I know there are teachers who don't understand No Child Left Behind and it's extremely necessary for teachers to know it.
Kelly Stroda, editor
864-810 or kstroda@knsan.com
Joel Peterson, managing editor
864-810 or jpeterson@knsan.com
Jonathan Shornau, managing editor
864-810 or jonshau@knsan.com
Christine Hormann
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EDUCATION
Clayton Ashley, managing editor 841-810 or驰知@canlan.com
Mandy Matney, opinion editor 842-824 or驰知@canlan.com
Vikas Shanker, editorial editor 842-824 or驰知@canlan.com
'No Child Left Behind misleading
A general education student may be able to be compliant, but crisis can happen to anyone. NCLB doesn't have the language to compensate for those situations. Also, parents can exempt their children from testing. How can the expectations of NCLB then be met? The school has no way to test based on the parents' preferences for whatever reason.
CONTACT US
With all the prescribed testing mandates under the No Child Left Behind Act, it's leaving school districts unable to realistically comply with the law. After two years of failing to meet Adequate Yearly Progress, schools are labeled with "Improvement" and it doesn't seem realistic to expect proficiency out of every school district. When 80 percent of students make AYP but the target is 91.9 percent, the label of "Improvement" is given.
I believe that being able to flex AYP targets based on the specific groups which are being tested would greatly help school districts. We cannot expect every student to meet 100 percent proficiency even though we may give different assessments to different groups. Alternative and special education students may not have the same abilities as general education students. The different groups need different target rates for their tests; if a student is given a different standardized test because of ability the AYP target needs to be flexible also.
Garrett Lent, business manager
864-4358 or glenn@kansan.com
Stephenian Green, sales manager
864-4477 or green@kansan.com
Malcolm Gibson, general manager and news adviser
864-7667 or mgibson@kansan.com
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Jon Schilt, sales and marketing adviser
864-7666 or jschilt@kansan.com
THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Members of the Kenan Editorial Board are Kelly Stroda, Joel Petterton, Jonathan Shorman, Vikas Shamker, Mandy Nattiy and Stefan Penney.
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