THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 2011
PAGE 5
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
opinion
FREE FOR ALL
Send your FFA submissions to freeforall@kansan.com
Dear Kansan,
I'm glad to see FFA return to a forum where students can freely express opinions and concerns to the public, instead of a place where students can waste hours of their time online.
I remember the '80s, the clothes weren't cool then either!
Why are the majority of girls wearing running shorts the ones you can tell don't run?
You can't objectify my subjectivity bro.
Imma let you finish, but the third floor of Haworth has the coldest drinking fountain of all time. OF ALL TIME.
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Will the kids outside of Hash ALWAYS look like Stoop Kid?
I think all these stuck up kids with their smart phones need to quit bitching and just save the email address for the FFA. Not that difficult people.
Angelica was such a bitch to Tommy ...
Due to lack of submissions, do I get in by default?
Editor's Note: Why yes you do.
Winning.
Anyone else notice the disproportionate number of attractive females on campus? There are so fewer good-looking guys.
Dear Townies,
Please stop driving 10 miles under the speed limit.
Love. Students
Hide the rum
Aaron Carter is back in Lawrence, bitches.
Umm... it feels wonderful to find out that you are laid-off the day after the Part-time Job Fair...
Pass the gravity. —I mean "baby!" ... I MEAN GRAVY!!!
Really UDK? Really? FFA isn't on facebook anymore? You realize you won't get half the amount of comments right Editor's note. We realize that, but half of those comments weren't that great anyway.
Silly freshmen trying to get on the back door of the bus.
When the hell did Syllabus week turn into work your ass off week? I hate higher level classes.
Take your parking issues to the right people
You can complain to your friends, family and professors that you have to walk halfway up the hill even when you have a car, but that won't help the problem at all. Students need to be proactive and address their concerns with both KU Parking & Transit and the three student members of the University's Parking Commission.
Whether it's the University of Kansas, or Dodge City Community College, parking is and will always be a perceived problem for students.
WANT TO CONTRIBUTE TO FREE FOR ALL?
EDITORIAL
Now it's even tougher to get a spot near your class or work. Parts of some yellow zone lots across campus were converted to red or eliminated.
1A 88 A
Email us your comments at freeforall@kansan.com or call us at (785) 864-0852. And don't worry, your comments will always stay anonymous.
Lot changes on West Campus now give pharmacy students the choice of either risking luck and time on finding an empty
sion. The commission is an advisory body to the department that also handles appeals to parking fines. It's composed of three students, three faculty, two unclassified staff and two university support staff.
It's up to students to report their inconveniences and problems to the parking department. If it's the lack of yellow zone spaces around your house, or a tire-busting pothole at the entrance of your parking garage, email kupark@ku.edu or attend the next parking open forum in the spring.
"Sometimes we're so close to the problem, we can't see it," director Donna Hultine said.
The three students on the commission are Elizabeth Watson (elizabethw@ku.edu), Ross Miller (rtmill@ku.edu), and Gabe Bliss (gbliss@ku.edu). Although they're appointed by the Provost, they still have a duty to reach out for students' parking concerns and represent those issues on the commission.
Email the right people, and make parking on campus easier.
If you feel uncomfortable doing that, or you just don't trust the University's department, talk to your three student representatives on the parking commis-
— Vikaas Shanker for Kansan Editorial Board
spot or playing it safe by relying on Park & Ride. Lots by the Spencer Museum of Art are always full, and the Mississippi Street Parking Garage was at overflow capacity earlier this week and has already sold out student parking passes.
provide repairs to parking facilities, it is an example of an efficient department. But it cannot fix all the problems on its own.
There is reasoning behind these seemingly anti-student lot changes. The pharmacy school's overwhelmingly increasing student headcount meant that faculty needed to be assured spots. The museum's lot wasn't overused by students, and when the Mississippi Street garage was full, the parking department contacted all garage permit holders telling them they can park in the surrounding zones.
KU Parking & Transit supports itself.
With a $2.6 million operating reserve, and
a $600,000 external fund balance used to
Enjoy the reassurance of Facebook-stalking
SOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook is a brilliant reminder of how super lame my hometown is (get ready, Vaners, this whole article is a backhanded shoutout). I mean, sure, I love and miss a lot of people I went to high school with now that I'm in my fourth year at the University of Kansas (at the end of this article it says I'm a junior, that's not a typo. Yay, class dropping!), but some of those chumps were whack, ya dig?
And I know, 'cause of Facebook. The place where you can physically showcase your friends or, y'know, everybody you've ever spoken more than two words to. She's having a baby, he loves his "cowgit"; and they're clearly still in major denial about their sexuality. They're all right there. At your fingertips. Every time you get on your "newsfeed," BAM, there they are with their weird shamrock tattoos and alien-looking babies.
I know this has probably become some cliché, coming every which way from 40- and 50-year-olds in your life, but we didn't always have the Look-At Me Machine (that term was coined by my comedian friend, Matt Keka, aka the "I'm a snake" guy from Tosh.0 Yep, I just named dropped the "I'm a snake" guy).
Our parents had to see their old high school friends got fat or had three kids named Braiden, Cayden and Raiden in person at Dillons or something. And
boy, oh boy, did they have to train their eyebrows not to raise incredulously and their mouths not to gape out of surprise.
I get that some of you are annoyed by this social networking mania that has made Google+ a thing that exists and something you probably have an account for now. But you have to look at the brightside. When you feel terrible about having to stay an extra year here, look up Lacey Nobody (what is up with the name "Lacey"? I was watching Campus P.D. earlier this summer and two girls in a row who were busted were named Lacey) and remind yourself of how they flunked out of Emporia State. If you feel you've gotten fat, there's probably someone who got way fatter.
That's the beauty of social networking. It's not so much about the networking as it is about making fun of every person you've ever spoken more
than a sentence to.
And to the freshmen, you'll get it in due time. I feel kind of like a drama mask when I see someone defriended me (can we discuss how "unfriended" became the word? defriended sounds so much better!). At first, I'm like, "WHAT! She defriended me? But we talked all the time in Geometry four years ago!" Then all, "She was a bigoted gay-hating, race-bashing sack of foot fungus who will probably live and die having accomplished nothing, but a bunch of shittily picnicked pictures!" Feels good, man.
—Chance Carmichael is a junior in creative writing from Mulvane. Follow him on twitter @ChanceCmical.
Anyway, I like where I am. And you should too. I mean, unless you're one of the weirdies that shows up on your friends' newsfeed. Admit it. You go through and read your info and look at your profile pictures, you narcissist. Why? Because you care about yourself. That's a good thing. I'm happy I'm not trapped in Mulvane (or to those from Johnson County, "South of Wichita"). Johnson County is the Bermuda triangle of Kansas — except there aren't giant squids there, just wealthy ignorance). Because then my newsfeed would just be my window. Although Mulvane does have a Chinese restaurant and a Taco Bell now, so there's that.
KANSAN.COM WEEKLY POLL
What's your favorite Hawk Week event?
- Rock Chalk Block Party (formerly Union Fest)
Cosmic Bowling
— Night on the Hill: DJ Earworm
— SUA Carnival
Health and Recreation Fest
Tradition's Night Go to Kansan.com to cast your vote
CAMPUS CHIRPS BACK
What is the best part about being back to school?
bennmumford
@UDK_Opinion ..Eating at MrsE's...just
kidding that ish get old quick.
@UDK_Opinion Being back on the beautiful campus, and the repaved roadswith less potholes and more crosswalks is an added bonus!
hannzbanans
From yesterday: What do you think of the UDK redesign?
xCrashx
@UDK Opinion Loving the new layout, but can you please put the crossword back into perfect foldable position? Doin' or agamai
@DOKU_Objoinn the Sudoku is HUGE! I liked it when it was smaller. Less conspicuous
crudefancies
DancnNancies
@UOK Opinion I'm diggin't the new design, but why did you feel the need to make the sudoku big enough for blind people!? also, a level 5 Sudoku on a Monday is only going to scare all freshman into believing they will never finish a puzzle
HUMAN RIGHTS
Syria protests remind students to appreciate rights of speech
Since March, government forces have killed several hundred protestors and tortured many of the thousands of arrested demonstrators, according to the Human Rights Watch report on the violence. The report states government forces "routinely prevented the wounded from getting medical assistance, and imposed a siege on several towns, depriving the population of basic services."
At the University of Kansas, students have tons of great opportunities academically, socially, and otherwise. We have these opportunities because as American students, our rights are protected.
In Syria, the ongoing protests against the government began when citizens took to the streets in March after a student who wrote anti-government graffiti was tortured. President Bashar al-Assad has been sending government forces to violently squash anti-government demonstrations.
Imagine, though, that we didn't have student rights.
This report conclusively determines that the Assad administration has no legitimacy to rule. As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said, it can no longer be considered "a credible member of the international community"
President Obama has called for Assad to step down, and human rights organizations are labeling the government's violence as crimes against humanity. Many people worldwide are calling for the UN Security Council to take a firmer stance against the Syrian government.
These events and efforts should be a reminder to students locally that they are fortunate their rights are protected and they should exercise
their rights peacefully when they feel it is necessary. We have the right and ability to agree or disagree with university policies or governmental policies. At the University, our student government offers a venue for discussing our stances on these issues and, when we want to make change, doing something about it.
When students and community members filled up the room at a senate meeting last semester because of their dedication to organizations that provide social services to students in Lawrence, I was proud to see students taking an interest in what the student government was doing and exercising their rights. I hope this involvement continues this semester. Although providing input at a town hall meeting or showing up at student senate is on a much smaller scale than protesting an abusive national government, I hope students do not take these abilities: for granted. I hope what is happening in Syria and other nations reminds students to appreciate and exercise the rights they have.
—Kelly Cosby is senior in English and political science from Overland Park. Follow her on Twitter @kellyCosby.
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LETTER GUIDELINES
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**Length:** 300 words
The submission should include the author's
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letter to the editor policy online at kansan.
com/letters.
Kelly Stroda, editor
864-810 or ktxtdua@ansan.com
Jeel Peterson, managing editor
864-810 or jeetserou@ansan.com
Jonathan Shorman, managing edito
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Jonathan Shorman, managing editor
864-4810 or jshoreman@kansan.com
Clayton Ashley, managing editor 864-4810 or cashley@kansan.com
Mandy Matney, opinion editor
864-4924 or mmatney@kansan.com
CONTACT US
Vikaas Shanker, editorial editor
864-4924 or vshanker@kansan.com
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Garrett Lent, business manager
864-4358 or glenn@kansas.com
Stephanie Green, sales manager
864-4747 or sjgreen@kansas.com
Malcolm Gibson, general manager and news adviser
864-7667 or mgibson@kansas.com
Jon Schitt, sales and marketing adviser
864-7666 or jachitt@kansan.com
THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Members of the Renaissance Board are Kelly Stroda, Joel Petterson, Jonathan Shmanar, Vikaas Shanker, Maddy Mathy and Steffen Penin.