OPINION
7A
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY NOVEMBER 20, 2008
FROM THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Why don't students vote in this election?
Quick — name the student body president, the person who presides over the $768.50 that you pay each year in fees. Can you name one of your student senators, the people who decide if we continue getting cheap prescriptions at Watkins Health Center and wireless Internet on campus and decide whether we should be paying more or less for these services?
Chances are you didn't know Adam McGonigle, the student body president, or any of your senators, because chances are
that you didn't vote in the campus elections last April.
more than a thousand miles away, but only about 15 percent of us vote for people whose decisions affect us more directly than the person sitting in the Oval Office.
It's puzzling that we students came out in droves to elect a man who will rule us from
This is not a high school StuCo election that were talking about, where candidates get the opportunity to pick crappy DJs for prom.
This is the real deal. Student Senate holds the strings on an $18 million purse of your money.
Senate's decisions determine if that purse gets bigger or smaller and how that money will be allocated. Our student politicians today will be some of our nation's politicians tomorrow. It does not bode well for the future of our
OUR
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democracy that these politicians debut in an arena where barely any of their constituents care enough to authorize them into office or hold them accountable for their actions.
Our apathy is not a protest against a system that some perceive as ineffective or powerless. It's a white flag, a message to the coalitions that we don't care whether senators are keeping our interests in mind or not.
Joe the Student not voting gives more power to the two largest interest groups that vote
in strong numbers;
greets and athletes.
The coalition that best appeases these
groups with representation and fee money,
has the best shot at
victory come April.
Blame for this bleak political reality doesn't rest solely on the shoulders of non-voters. It is The University Daily Kansan's job to inform students about senate affairs, and coverage could be beefed up and made more interesting and presented in a way students can understand. But Senate must also figure out how to work its $5,000 clickers so that voting records can be posted online.
Ultimately though, nothing will change the status quo unless students wake up and demand it through words and votes.
-lan Stanford for the editorial board
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Mob rule should not decide rights of all
was even a vote at all.
Unfortunately for the letter to the editor writer of "Why is Proposition 8 being protested?" Nov. 19, the United States is precisely not a nation that prides itself on being a democracy. We are a republic; "and to the republic for which it stands". The fact that Obama won the popular vote really means nothing. What mattered was that he won the electoral vote.
There is still a difference between protesting the presidential election and protesting the vote on Proposition 8 in California. To protest the election would indeed be to protest wrongly. It would be to disagree with the fact that Obama won even though he did so, fair and square. But those who are protesting Prop 8 are not protesting the fact that the "ayes have it." They are protesting the fact that there
We do not live in a country run by mob rule. We cannot vote over what people should and should not have the right to do. There was a time when the majority would have voted that blacks should not have the right to vote.
Even so, it would be absurd to say they should not have had that right at that time.
But according to the writer's reasoning, protesting such a vote would be folly, for it would be tantamount to protesting his beloved "democracy."
I would protest such a vote,
just as I protest the vote on
Prop 8. I would be protesting
democracy. But it is a fanciful
fact that we do not live in one.
Otherwise, the mob would rule, and you might find that you just lost your right to vote or perhaps to marry the one you loved dearly.
Lamar Hunt is a junior from Overland Park.
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THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Members of the Kansan Editorial Board are Alex Doherty, Jenny Harty, Lauren Keith, Patrick O'Rea, Raye Bayr, Ian and Stanford.
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BFA 26653 bfa1678
In Telangana at mgfshol.com
FROM THE DRAWING BOARD
NICHOLAS SAMBALUN
We won't be national champions in this
The case of Larry Sinks vs. KU Athletics Department reached its conclusion in July. Sinks, owner of Joe College, would soon be $127,337 poorer.
The ruling was that Sinks could not sell nearly 50 of his shirts although the rationale behind why he couldn't sell these particular shirts still remains a mystery.
Apparently Sinks is guilty of using the color blue and the word "hawk" and of taking money away from the Church of the Athletics Department.
What the decision amounted to was a classic 70s obscenity trial where Sinks was the pornographer and the University was the ultramoral religious right.
Like the cases brought against Larry Flynt of Hustler magazine, no one could define the term obscenity beyond the classic. "I
"Trademark infringement" was the given reason yet no definition of how these shirts infringed on the University's trademark was ever given. The University simply thought its reputation was damaged as if it were a person.
don't know what it is, but I know it when I see it."
Rock Chalk Rich Jayhawks, go top 10 percent! That's my vote for a new KU T-shirt.
Higher education will become what the elites decide it should be and not what the general public decides. College will become nothing more than a business that serves the rich.
More disturbing than the Athletics Department's harassment of a local business owner who did no wrong is the reason it seemed adamant about pursing him.
Although the football and basketball games have become the main attraction, in the background blares the real game that is being played — the quiet privatization of America's universities.
In the last 20 years, taxpayer support of higher education has dwindled, leaving colleges searching for other revenue sources. In the process, universities have looked to other revenue to cover their losses, like T-shirt sales.
The University, according to a KU news release, receives only 24 percent of its funding from the state and another 20 percent from federal research grants and contracts. This means that most of KU's funding comes from private sources.
Less support has meant skyrocketing tuition for students, lower faculty salaries and less accessibility to college for the poor and the middle class. This is alarming because a college education is increasingly becoming a prerequisite in maintaining a middle class lifestyle.
The study concluded, "Kansas, once a leader in supporting higher education, has reduced its financial support to the point that it is below national averages and nearly the lowest among Big 12 states."
Kansans value higher education, but they don't want to pay for it. Just last week Gov. Kathleen Sebelius ordered KU to cut its budget by 3 percent, which is the opposite of what should have happened.
ries are lower in Kansas than the average among the Big 12 schools and below the national average.
The value of higher education can't be overstated, but it will require more tax payer support if it's going to thrive.
So the free market must be working wonders for the University then, right? No. In a study of higher education in Kansas, the nonprofit group Citizens for Higher Education found that per student, the University of Kansas is tied with K-State for last place among Big 12 schools for funding of higher education.
Mangiaracina is a Lenexa senior in journalism.
Among faculty, for its size, sala-
The easy way out of saying you have an STI
In a society that has become obsessed with sex — selling it, having it, labeling it — the consequences of our sexual escapades have come to fruition with the increasing number of sexually transmitted infections every year.
This brings up the tedious job of trying to remember all of the people you've had sex with so you can call and let them know they may have an STI. With 15 million new cases of STIs in the U.S. every year, this could take awhile.
However, I discovered a Web site that will send STI e-cards to ease the embarrassment of revealing you've got something less than appealing going on down there.
was originally geared toward a gay-male audience, but it features cards that can be sent to any gender or sexual orientation.
Guidelines urge users to send these cards only if they feel they could have actually given someone an STI, but there is no way to regulate how many legitimate ones are actually sent and how many are sent as a joke or out of spite.
I sent five e-cards after warning my friends, but you can enter up to six e-mail addresses to bulk send a card to different partners, especially convenient to people who have been getting around.
The Web site, called inSPOT, was created by "Internet Sexuality Information Services Inc.," supposedly as a public health response to the increasing rates of STIs. It
To enter the site, you click on a city or state. Kansas isn't an option yet, so I chose California.
Then you are prompted to click "Tell Them" or "Get Checked."
The "Tell Them" link then takes you to the "pick a card" portion of the Web site. The e-cards feature various slogans, such as "I got screwed while screwing. You might have too" with pictures of screws in the background. Another card reads, "Got laid. Was happy. Got tested. Wasn't healthy," with pictures of smiley and sad faces.
Because we were born in the age of the computer, we've forgotten how to communicate face-to-face or even through phone calls.
My personal favorite has a man with no shirt and a towel wrapped around him saying, "You're too hot to be out of action."
Facebook, texting and dating sites depersonalize communication. Technology has eliminated the necessity of conversation, and as a result what should be personal was instead sent to your inbox.
The idea behind the site is valid, but the main focus should be on preventing these diseases instead of coming up with cheesy cards to give cowards a way out of facing the consequences of sex.
If you are mature enough to have sex,you should be mature enough to make the phone call.
What happened to owning up to the responsibility of having sex? A simple phone call saying, "I may have given you chlamydia" would be appreciated as opposed to getting an anonymous e-card.
Thornbrugh is a Lenexa junior in creative writing.
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I thought i would never be saying this, but some of us need to go to the library on game-day, so leave some parking open.
--has no idea
Conner Teahan, cut your hair!
I am trying to wrap my head around why O'Reilly Auto Parts is sponsoring the hardwood of our basketball
My sorority sister's guilty pleasure is strangers in skinny jeans. Any takers?
--has no idea
--has no idea
Brady Morningstar should be at Duke.
To the guy who said "what's up, girl" to me and then tripped: you're awesome, you just made my day.
The FFA does not care for your frivolous assorted vampire characters.
I missed my bus today because it was five minutes early and didn't wait. Thanks KU On Wheels.
I just got spanked.
To the guy who wanted to be my sugar daddy: OK!
I wish my roomate would understand what it's like to be in a loving, supportive relationship. Maybe then would she stop telling me that I "dont need to see my boyfriend all the time." She
My ceiling is dripping. Makes me wonder what's going on in the apartment above mine.
I'm about to go out, and I look hot. But I would bet money no one will hit on me where I'm going. Too bad.
I have blue eyes. They change intensity with my mood. Feel free to fall in love with me.
---
That makes me feel so much better, thanks.
My house has a basement,
but my landlord won't let us
use it and keeps it locked.
Does she want us to die?
Confessions of unrequited love to anonymous internet strangers. Too cheap for a shrink, too embarrassed for one or simply copping out?
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