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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2011
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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Sometimes I wear headphones just so my roommate won't talk to me.
I have already lost all drive to do school work.
If the bus is packed full, dear God don't fart.
Hey, at least we don't have a losing record ... yet.
Took a dollar from my margarita Monday fund to buy a GRE practice book at the book sale. Look at me growing up.
The dorm's too hot, the morning is too cold, the afternoon is too hot and the classrooms are too cold. Seriously, what am I supposed to do here?
Random text I got in class,
"Haaaate o chem. The only cleavage
I care about is boobs."
I need a mind comod because something just blew up in my mind.
To the girl who sent her boyfriend in Afghanistan the FFA, he probably would have preferred nudes.
The Chiefs are so bad, maybe KU should think about scheduling them.
To the guy standing in front of me, I swear I wasn't staring at your crotch. I was spacing out.
KU please admit you have a problem with your WiFi.
I instantly judge anyone wearing beats.
I swear to God if another bus driver stops to take a smoke while on duty. I will shit on their face. I need to get class!
The look on the freshmen's face as the bus door cuts them off because it's full: priceless.
Thank God for the hills around Lawrence. The women's legs are toned and nice.
How hard is it to find a girl that's down for some casual sex and a bong bowl?
I get so annoyed when I see a Jayhawk without a nostril. The bird can't breathe!
Extended FFA section? MY DAY IS COMPLETE
It's impossible to look cool when running with a backpack on.
Editor's note: What if you're shuffling with a backpack on?
Is it me, or does it look like there's a transformer on top of Mallot Hill? And if so, is he a good transformer or bad?
Investing in middle school students also means investing in the University of Kansas' future.
KU GEAR UP example for future programs
EDITORIAL
By being approved once again for grants through the federal GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Education) program, the University of Kansas is continuing its leadership in helping at-risk primary and secondary school students in Kansas City, Kan.
The two grants, which provide a total of $1.28 million each year for the University's KU GEAR UP programs for the next seven years, will fund efforts to help 1,600 sixth and seventh graders at Coronado, West, Arrowhead
and Eisenhower middle schools prepare for success in college and graduation. The approval comes after a previous 12-year grant for the programs expired last year.
This is what we were talking about in last Thursday's editorial on the University community utilizing externships as ways to help public schools. Education isn't the only way of providing a service to local schools; professional majors including engineering, journalism, business and medical students can help struggling school districts' infrastructure while inspiring young students to make higher education a goal.
Helping out local schools through our own initiatives and
No, I will not be friends with your dog on Facebook.
These students are the future of Kansas City, the University, state and the nation. By leveling out the playing field for underprivileged students, and showing them the value of higher education through the University's campus, program director Ngondi Kamatuka and his team are investing in better prepared future University students.
resources — including students, faculty and staff — gives the University intangible advantages when recruiting Kansas and out-of-state students.
are given a look at the University's campus and are given "cultural excursions," such as going to a Kansas City Royals baseball game when their incomes may not have allowed it. Graduation rates of students in the programs are higher than at-risk students not in the program according to Kamataka, citing his 12 years of experience directing the programs.
In the program, students are taught in a way that teaches them life skills, instead of how to simply pass a test. Middle schoolers
serving the state, it should endorse KU GEAR UP as a proven model for future programs in all fields of study to help Kansas' children and communities.
Kamatuka felt that immense support from Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little contributed to the approval of the grants. So if the University's administration wants to increase enrollment and graduation rates while pleasing Governor Sam Brownback by
Vikaas Shanker for The Kansan Editorial Board
HUMAN RIGHTS
Send your thoughts to vshanker@ kansan.com to let the Editorial Board know.
WHAT ISSUES SHOULD WE TAKE A STAND ON THIS SEMESTER?
Saudi Arabia not alone in gender inequality
On Sept. 25, the king of Saudi Arabia announced that finally, Saudi women will be granted the right to vote. This right, along with the right for women to run in elections, will come into effect in the year 2015.
Although striking down barriers to participation in the political process is an important step forward, many have taken this as an opportunity to criticize several of the other shortcomings the state has in the area of women's rights.
Although the ability to participate in the political process is an important step forward for women in Saudi Arabia, there are still other hurdles that may prevent their full involvement.
Even though Saudi women will be able to vote, they still are legally prevented from driving. Because women cannot travel anywhere without a male chaperone, their mobility is significantly limited and could prevent women from making it to the polls, especially if a woman's spouse or father objects to her right to participate.
Over the summer, several women disobeyed the ban on driving in protest. Several were arrested and later released. One woman was sentenced to 10 lashes after driving a vehicle. Soon after this announcement
that women would gain the right to vote, however, the Saudi King overturned the sentence.
This civil disobedience shows Saudi women are actively seeking to be engaged in the political discussion. The right to vote is an important piece of that engagement, but when it is diluted by other barriers, it becomes a less effective tool in the process.
The struggle for reducing discrimination against women in Saudi Arabia is one of many gender equality struggles across the globe. In many places, gender discrimination is so blatant and appalling that it serves to give women in countries like the United States a sense of gratitude to have more freedoms and a greater sense of gender equality.
Certainly in comparison to these grave injustices, women in the U. S. are much more fortunate and enjoy countless rights, many resulting from the efforts of
previous generations of activists demanding rights for women.
But, our rights are still not all encompassing. Health care is a major issue affecting women in the U.S right now, especially in Kansas. Access to contraceptives and important cancer screenings are at risk because of political games surrounding abortion. Those types of health care are indispensable to women in the U.S.; because of low access for poor women and little accountability, it is more dangerous to give birth in the U.S. than in 49 other countries, according to maternal health reports by Amnesty International.
Though there are large disparities in the amount of rights afforded to women in various countries, it is clear that even in the U.S., there is room for improvement. Ever important is remembering the rights we do have that are not protected for many women in other parts of the world. But, it is time that we recognize that even though ours are less visible than those struggles, gender disadvantages still need to be addressed here.
Cosby is a senior from Overland Park majoring in political science and English.
@UDK Opinion Doing the work for someone with a pulse which beats less frequently than Chris Brown. #nottoooon
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Technology takes the moment away
Last week I saw Atmosphere, one of my favorite hip-hop groups, at Liberty Hall. The show itself did successfully blow me away but there was something else happening that has continued to bother me at live concerts.
Our pockets now have a device that holds everything we need to know, as long as we have 3G service available, by connecting to the Internet. This availability has become our memories. Everything we need — instead of the use of recalling it in our minds — we just whip out our phones to get the answers. We are rendering the ability to think by relying too much on technology.
For example, instead of trying to think and to recall something, I immediately go to Google to give me the answer. The problem is that shortly after clicking on the Wikipedia link, what I looked up slips away, and I have to look up the answer again.
The bottom floor, packed full with ecstatic fans, was incorporated sporadically with the glow of cell phones in the air trying to turn the present moment into a memory that could be looked back upon in the future.
The Ancient Greek philosopher Socrates never wrote a word. He saw books as a "technology" that should not be trusted. In the dialogue "Phaedrus", which was written by Plato, Socrates claimed that books create forgetfulness in our minds because it does not exercise memory. It is not experienced wisdom but only a semblance of wisdom.
The irony in this is that without Plato writing the dialogues of Socrates' life we would never know anything about him, and
As technology continues to make our lives easier, it also takes the passion of the moment away. The people at this concert were more focused on their IPhone screen then they were on the stage. This technology allows us to show others what we have witnessed by posting on YouTube and other media sites, but it also takes away the feeling of truly enjoying the moment as it is happening live.
This goes to say with the whole idea of recording a concert with a Smartphone instead of being a part of the live experience. We think more about preserving these experiences on our hard drives instead of our minds.
My overall concern is one day every single person at concerts will have their phone in the air to record the stage and this would be way too many distractions for me to enjoy myself.
Socrates tried to warn us that technologies would interrupt our thought process, and replace our memories with only the false perception of a memory.
Moffitt is a senior in English and philosophy from Wichita.
CARTOON
I try to reflect how I even used to spend my time five years ago when I didn't have the option to watch television reruns on the Internet. What did I do? Back in High School I used to read every night before I went to bed, but now I watch a random TV episode that I stumble upon on Netflix.
Ok, we'll move the 2012 primary forward to January 31. ..and the 2016 primary will be held Feb. 1.
I think he has a relevant point when it comes to modern society. Technology is turning into our memories. Society has to adjust to these changes in technology by using them as a tool to help and not as the source of our knowledge.
Socrates made these claims about technology many centuries ago. They still have relevance to our modern culture. Our generation is far beyond the technologies of books and writings for we have so much more and it is almost too convenient. The fact that I can watch an episode of Arrested Development by the click of my mouse is in itself, the most incredible thing ever.
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