MONDAY, AUGUST 29, 2011
PAGE 5
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY BANSA
opinion
That awkward moment when the guy next to you is talking about shake weights on the phone and ends the call with love you mom.
Send your FFA submissions to freeforall@kansan.com
In some ways my ego is the biggest slut.
FREE FOR ALL
I don't always drink milk, but when I do, I prefer dos boobies.
Broken handle on the Union? Stupid freshmen. This is why we can't have nice things.
It's really cool how I am denied in-state tuition so KU can afford nice new Dodge Charger cop cars ...
To the girl who randomly walked into my house, looked around, realized you were in the wrong house and left, can you please come back?
That awkward moment when you start complaining about freshmen on the bus then you remember you're wearing your 2015 shirt ...
Dear Students.
Rather than complaining about townies driving 10 miles under the speed limit, why don't we just compromise: nobody will drive more than 20 miles over the speed limit.
Love. Townie
Are all squirrels born with rabies or is it like an STD they get infected with throughout their life?
Dear Students,
Please stop driving 90 miles an hour through my neighborhood. For real.
Not so much love Townies
Where do I study abroad when I take Latin?
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EDITORIAL
Email us your comments at freeforall@kansan.com or call us at (785) 064-0852.
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Excessive drinking hurts academic success
After the five-day first week of classes, the exhausted student probably took to the clubs, bars, frats and apartment parties to blow off steam the college way. Shots, kegs of beer and Ping-Pong balls were part of many students' weekend. For students of age, social drinking provides a fun way to hang out with friends while playing with each other's libido and living the "college experience"
But for students under age (and even those of age), the warm, booze-filled weekend is often abused. New students especially need to be careful while celebrating their new-found freedom from
parental oversight. Because if they aren't, they could find themselves out of college entirely.
A joint study by doctors of community health from University of North Texas and Boston University found that first-year students' desires to limit drinking and avoid drinking while driving declined as the semester went on. At the same time, students tended to drink more alcohol, more often, right after classes start.
This is a real problem because about 20 percent of first-time, fulltime freshmen drop out after the first year according to the University of Kansas' Office of Research and Planning. This means about
800 of new students will not continue at the University at the end of spring 2012.
The U.S. Department of Education claims that abusive alcohol-related activities negatively contribute to academic success, and can carry a bevy of problems that may take years to fix, if they can be fixed at all. A perfect example of this is the tragedy of Jason Wren.
A former freshman who died from alcohol poisoning at his fraternity in 2009, Wren had developed drinking problems while he was living in University housing. He was cited for numerous liquor violations while living in Oliver Hall and was required to move out
after just five months. The Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity took him in, and he was found in his room on March 8 with a blood alcohol content of .362 — more than four times the legal limit to operate a motor vehicle. His story exposed the problems and dangers of binge drinking on campus. It also showed that for freshmen, the worst possible outcome of unrestrained drinking is possible.
The University has resources to help students at http://www2.ku.edu/~alcohol/resources/, but it starts with the student. Drinking is a natural part of college life. It's a stress reliever, but only when alcohol is not consumed to the point of
drunkenness.
Go out, have fun, but know your limits. Moderation ensures you won't become one of the 800 freshmen dropouts or suffer the same fate as Jason Wren.
-Vikaas Shanker for Kansan Editorial Board
WHAT ISSUES SHOULD WE TAKE A STAND ON THIS SEMESTER?
WORLD
Send your thoughts to vshanker@ kansan.com to let the Editorial Board know.
A blurb is not enough
Quick, think about the news headlines of the summer. We have a new country; the Republic of South Sudan; the GOP battle for the Republican Presidential nomination has begun in earnest; our military involvement in Libya has intensified. These events continue to capture our attention through the media, even though at times we may attempt to shut them out.
Today, more than ever, we can specifically choose the news reports we follow daily. Flipping through a newspaper or magazine, we can look over anything we're not interested in and read more about what we are. Television shows and news channels can be easily streamed over the web, and we have complete control over what we want to watch. Tiny blurs on social media tempt us into clicking attached links to read more. In the end, we have the power to spend our time specifically on whatever we wish.
This barrage of blurbs is increasingly becoming a source of entertainment. The subjects of these news stories can at times seem to exist as pure sideshows, but we forget very easily that these landmark events affect the lives of others much more than we realize.
A five-minute reading about
Images of famine in Somalia may be shocking and unpleasant, but it's not like images can ever be forced upon anyone. Just as easily as the image is available, it is just as easy to click out of it and immediately forget about its impact.'
the new same-sex marriage law in New York may be pleasant and enlightening, but its ramifications for couples who have lived in the state for years and can now marry the love of their lives are profound.
Elders and peers constantly remind us to "take a walk in another person's shoes" when we are quick to make judgmental statements about others with a limited amount of knowledge at our disposal. I couldn't even count the number of people I saw on social media making snap judgments about their approval or disapproval of the debt limit deal (or, with even less sensitivity, the Casey Anthony trial), even though they knew a bare
minimum about the in’s and out’s of these events and were possibly even pre-disposed to an opinion because of biased "news" anchors.
We are invited to make these judgments, though, because of how the news is normally fed to us without us realizing its impact. By allowing ourselves access to more news, less of our time may be devoted to reading through each event one-by-one. This may lead to an even greater misunderstanding of the issues at large. One way to overcome any sort of these incorrect assumptions is to open up our awareness to the fact that there is no simple way of understanding everything the media is offering us.
Through that awareness, as I am discovering today, there was never really a moment when not much was "going on." All that changes is our realization that we can constantly further our understanding of the world and all the complex events that happen on it.
After that, the summer seems practically mild in comparison.
Brett Salsbury is a senior in English, art history, and global and international studies from Chapman.
CAMPUS CHIRPS BACK
What clothing do you consider to be inappropriate for students to wear to class?
Follow us on Twitter @UDK_Opinion.
Tweet us your opinions, and we just might publish them.
JessedoWell
Random opinions on Campus:
@UDK. Opinion I always feel like I have good days when I dress nice! Look cute = feel cute! :)
Kourtni14
@UDK Opinion see-through or cropped shirts. Really, we are in class not the club.
sillymusicgeek
@UDK, Opinion Pajamas are completely wrong for going to class. If you were planning on sleeping, why go to class in the first place?
@UDK. Opinion Everyone is complaining about the new UDK. Sex on the Hill twice a semester. Problem solved.
@UDOK_Infigure figure out your "technical difficulties" so we can post to the FFA app anonymously. :)
BoHabanero
m_gerst12
Roozle10 @UDK_Opinion Facebook. There's an opinion.
@DUK Opinion by the end of first semester Johnny Drama will envy my calves
simonkindel3
bwilson10233
Screw being anonymous,
my post got in the @
UDK Opinion Free For All!!
winning
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Dear UDK readers.
As editors of the opinion page, we'd like to address your concerns regarding the disappearance of the Free For All application on Facebook. This was not intentional. We are trying to figure out what went wrong and how to retrieve the app. At the same time, we're brainstorming new ideas to increase the quality and quantity of comments on the Free For All and restore its glory. Please be patient with us during this process and recognize that we are trying. That said, please vote in the poll, tweets us @UDK_opinion or email us at mmatney@kansan.com or vshanker@kansan.com with any comments or ideas.
Whenever I think of organic or green clothing, for some reason, I think of large burlap sacks with a hole for a person's head and holes for their arms. Yes, that's weird. But I never had the greatest view of these clothes in the past. Just like with any other organic product, using these reduces emissions of toxins into the environment. And that is enough reason, at least for me, to give this clothing a chance.
— Mandy Matney and Vikaas Shanker
I guess you could call me an environmental and organic health nut, considering I use all organic hygiene products, cringe when people throw away soda cans and try to stick to organic groceries. And I am. But while starting to unpack my room, I realized that I have no organic clothing. I don't even know that much about those types of clothes. Or, at least, I didn't until I started writing this column.
Rachel Schwartz
rschwartz@kansan.com
Although there are a couple of handfels of types of organic fabrics, cotton, hemp, and bamboo are three of the most popular. The conventional alternatives of these organic plants are sprayed with lots of pesticides and insecticides.
ENVIRONMENT
Check your clothes for eco-friendliness
While cotton is advertised as a natural product, conventionally grown cotton is sprayed with more than 25 percent of the world's insecticides. Many of these chemicals used on cotton, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), are likely to cause cancer. While, I feel like just about everything this day is shown to cause cancer and, therefore, am typically a bit skeptical, I actually
As with all clothing, you have to search for the bargains. Organic t-shirts can cost anywhere from $30 to $300, dresses around $50 and jeans start around $30. I don't think that's bad considering the outlandish prices of clothing now a day. Plus, organic clothing made out of hemp or bamboo is durable, so you won't have to bust your wallet on clothes as often.
If you're a little skeptical about that, maybe this will change your mind. Pesticides kill about 200,000 people each year, according to the World Health Organization. Since pesticides are used to grow plants such as cotton, making and wearing this clothing only contributes to this deadly occurrence. So, wake up and smell the organic roses!
believe it in this case. Five of the top chemicals used on cotton have been proven to cause cancer and all top nine are classified by the EPA in Categories I and II as the most dangerous. The final process of manufacturing cotton products even involves harmful chemicals, including bleaches and formaldehydes.
After finding that information, I became convinced that organic clothing was the way to go. But I still had the burlap sack image in my head. When I looked at some organic clothes online, though, I was shocked. They looked exactly the same as everyday, typical clothing!
So, we can all be stylish and save the environment too. What a relief!
Rachel Schwartz is a senior in journalism from Leawood.
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Kelly Stroda, editor
864-4810 or kikrson.kansan.com
Joel Peterson, managing editor
864-4810 or jjeterson.kansan.com
Johnathon Shorman, managing editor
Jonathan Shorman, managing editor
864-4810 or jshoreman@kansan.com
Clayton Ashley, managing editor 864-4810 or cashlev@kansan.com
Mandy Matney, opinion editor
864-4924 or mmatnew@kansan.com
Garrett Lent, business manager
864-4358 or glen@kansas.com
Stephanie Green, sales manager
864-4177 or green@kansas.com
Malcolm Gibson, general manager and news adviser
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CONTACT US
Vikaas Shanker, editorial editor
864-4924 or vshanker@kansan.com
THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Jon Schlitt, sales and marketing adviser
864-7666 or jschlitt@kansan.com
THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Members of the Kansai Edward Board are Kelly Strode,
Joe Peterson, Jonathan Jeannah, Vikas Shanker, Mandy
Mathey and Seaman Pena.
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