4A the university daily kansan
opinion
monday, November 3, 2003
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editorial board
The tuition issue gets old. The same story is replayed over and over. Students say the tuition is going up too fast and too high. The administration reports that the University of Kansas is still under the national average. Students give up. If the University is really that cheap, why should we fight?
Speak out about any all tuition concerns
Because there is still something to be gained from a fight. Part of the reason our tuition will go up 250 percent by the end of this five-year plan is that the state of Kansas has not fulfilled its duty to fund higher education. KU students and administration need to work together to prove to the state legislature and the people of Kansas that higher education deserves their support.
The state has significantly cut support for higher education. In fiscal year 2002, general tax revenues financed 45 percent of higher education system's operations in the state. This year at the University, general tax revenues contribute less than 30 percent.
The University of Kansas is a public school. We boast the name of Kansas in our title because the state should be a major resource for support. Of course, students should be responsible for contributing to their education, but they should not be expected to bear the whole burden.
The state is spending less of its general tax revenues in fiscal year 2004 on higher education than it did in 2002. The Lawrence Journal-World reported that the 2002 state budget allocated $706.5 million from general tax revenues to higher education. In the 2004 budget, $673.9 million was allocated. The administration has had to make up for these cuts by raising tuition.
Higher education is an invaluable commodity for Kansas. KU graduates go on to be leaders all over the state. Our School of Education provides teachers when the state desperately needs them. The School of Business prepares entrepreneurs that contribute to a healthy economy. The University of Kansas Hospital provides the doctors, not just in Kansas City, but in small towns all around the state. We, the students, along with the administration, have to show the state that we are worth supporting.
In the spring, executive vice chancellor Janet Murgula will go to Topeka to lobby. There should be a bus of students behind her. State legislators need proof students at the University of Kansas care. We care about Kansas, and we care about the price of our education.
In the more immediate future, the University will have a Rally for Higher Education on campus planned by Student Senate. This is an opportunity for students to tell the administration, the Board of Regents and the state how they feel about a KU education. Is it too expensive? Is it worth paying for? Has tuition enhancement helped students?
This is not the time to be silent.The rising cost of an education and the decreased support by the state are important issues that every student should care about. Make your voice heard this year.
Anna D. Gregory for the editorial board
stayskal's view
commentary
Non-sexual touching has many benefits, stops violence
Zagreb, Croatia recently experienced a strange occurrence, which should be called a tragedy. Unsupervised for a mere minute while the nanny stepped out, 14 tots in a nursery hospital attacked a 1-year-old baby and bit him all over his body. Just when you think the world cannot get any weirder.
Jayme A. Aschemeyer opinion@kansan.com
GUEST COMMENTARY
Now that there is proof that violence can escalate in any age developmental range, a cause is even more difficult to grapple. Do all seemingly innocent babies have an evil side that emerges when a watchful eye is no longer near? This is probably not the case.
Rather, it is not a coincidence that a report on the negative effects on physically isolated children who are deprived of touch was printed a week later. With everything in the news media portrayed as a legality issue, it is no surprise that when Americans think about touching others it is often in sexual terms. From the Kobe Bryant case to the Elizabeth Smart abduction, everything seems to be revolving around inappropriate touching and sexual assault.
Back in Croatia, there was only one nanny watching 15 babies. Nice ratio. Even though this story played out overseas, something similar is bound to happen in the United States with the recent worker shortages in hospitals.
The point is that these babies did not have enough touch, enough tender loving care, to experience the soothing, relaxing reassurance that someone was there.
Today, technology is counted on for child rearing, making babies mature into latch key kids. This, in turn, leads to more violence and it
According to Tiffany Field, director of the Touch Research Institutes at the University of Miami School of Medicine. "There are many studies that show animals that are touch-deprived become aggressive, violent, even kill each other." Field's own research, which included studying touch between Parisians and Americans, confirmed her theory on the lack of touch in America.
With more working parents and single parents on the rise and divorces ever more common, more children and babies are left with impersonal caregivers.
continues to be a cycle that dismantles society as these children grow up to raise their own kids in the same manner.
As college students, it is important to be knowledgeable about inappropriate touching, especially while under the influence, but it is just as important to build relationships in which you use this tactile sense.
Hug your parents, shake your colleagues' hands, hold your girlfriend or boyfriend's hands and do anything in a non-sexual manner that can expose yourself to the benefits of essential touching.
Maybe these babies were superintelligent and formed their own mafia ring to oust the one unwilling baby boy. More likely, though, these undeveloped young minds never experienced the simple act of enough touching and somehow plotted their attack.
"As our world becomes more crowded, we become more zealous in guarding our own personal space, that invisible boundary surrounding our body into which we do not allow intruders," writes Phyllis R. Davis in her book The Power of Touch. It is time to change this apparently American stereotype by easily opening our arms to change.
Aschemeyer is an Aurora, Colorado, senior in human biology and psychology.
letter to the editor
Letter inaccurately attributed, 'real' author speaks out
My name is Kevin Hess. Today is Thursday, October 30, 2003, and this is the first letter I have ever written to the editor of the Kansan. Yet, somehow, today there was a letter to the editor in the paper signed by me. Just to make sure I was the only Kevin Hess at KU, I checked www.ku.edu's people search, and I am the only one listed. What this says to me is that someone here at the University of Kansas who is afraid of expressing his beliefs publicly wrote a letter to the editor and sent it with my name attached. Say what you will about me, but I don't take kindly people putting words in my mouth, so I'd like to clear things up a bit.
The letter was criticizing an article by Matthew Pirotte called "Under God' phrase protected by U.S. Constitution," and dealt primarily with Constitutional interpretation. The writer of the letter stated that Pirotte's interpretation of the Constitution was "far too limited" and that he displayed "ignorance." Personally, I did not agree with everything Pirotte wrote. I also disagreed with much of "my" letter to the editor. However, I would not refer to its writer as ignorant, nor would I attempt to force my limited knowledge of Constitutional law on anyone. And I would NEVER use the phrase "explicitly implied," because it contradicts itself.
Kevin Hess sophomore undecided
Editor's note: This letter is a response to a mistake made by the opinion page editors. The editors failed to contact the author by phone and instead communicated by email. This resulted in an inaccurate attribution to the author who was not, in fact, Kevin Hess. The author of the first letter to the editor is not known by the Kansan staff. All attempts to contact him or her have been unsuccessful.
'kansan'report card
Pass:
Scholarship hall smoothies night: Despite all the criticism Prof. Dennis Dailey has dealt with, he still carries on with an annual ritual, and the scholarship hall residents still participate with relish. What could be better than a night of tasty treats and sex seminars?
■ Window stickers on dorms: Props to the Department of Student Housing. Only time will tell if these "warning" stickers do any good, but it's better than nothing.
Fail:
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Online timetable: Why fix something that wasn't broken? This semester's version is way worse than last semester's. While the University was probably trying to make the program better, they made it more confusing. Word of advice: Just change it back.
Wayne Stayskal for Knight Ridder
GTAs' health plan: Sounds like a raw deal, but you do know that doctors can misdiagnose patients everywhere, not just Watkins, right? Don't blame it all on them.
Louise Stauffer/Kansan
Free forAll
Call 864-0500
Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. Kansan editors reserve the right to omit comments. Slanderous and obscene statements will not be printed. Phone numbers of all incoming calls are recorded.
For more comments, go to www.kansan.com
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To Arrah Nielson: Find something better to write about. Stop pestering everything and everyone.
Oh, my God, I just saw a cockroach the size of a baby carrot in the women's bathroom in Wescoe Hall. It was on the first floor, too. So gross.
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This is to Arrah Nielson: Next time you need to check your facts. Last I looked, we dropped atomic bombs not nuclear bombs on the Japanese.
Gravy is good on everything.
I came here to kick ass and chew bubble gum. I am all out of bubble gum.
To whoever the tall blonde handsome man is at Café Luna: We need to make out.
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Girls go out in packs and rent movies just for the sex scenes. True story.
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Why are all of the guys in Kappa Sig so damn fine?
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It smells like pumpkin in here.
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What happened to the Libra horoscope in the paper? Now how am I suppose to plan my day?
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Sorry kids, I don't have any candy. Would you like some beer?
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I'll tell you what you should do when you find out that your roommate is becoming a lesbian. Call me when you two decide to hook up.
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What is worse than a Minnesota driver?
An Illinois driver.
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I just wanted to call you guys and let you know that you need to re-name the Free For All to Besh the Greeks because that seems to be all there is.
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