4A the university daily kansan
opinion
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tuesday, October 28, 2003
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If you were a hot dog, would you eat yourself?
To the guy that calls my cell phone and keeps getting the machine: Take a hint.
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To the guy who finally found me: Now you just need to break up with your girlfriend.
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This is to Johnny's troll: Thank you for stealing my friend. Have a nice day.
Hey troll: Go back to the bridge that you came from and tend to your goats.
F. Y.I. Haky sack is the bomb diggity
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meneley's view
... ONE NATION UNDER GOD, BUDDHA ALLAH, KRISHNA, KAMI, THE DEVIL. ZEUS, OR NOBODY AT ALL...
IF WE TRULY P.C.'D THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Lance Menely for The University Daily Kansas
perspective
Break causes unnecessary stress; distributed testing better way to go
COMMENTARY
The question on everybody's lips when meeting a friend this week is, "What did you do over fall break?" The perennial answer remains the same for most of us. "Nothing." I was one of those people. I slept in. I watched some television. I caught up on some enjoyable reading I had been meaning to do for a long time. In general, I took it easy and relaxed. That picture of my fall break could be repeated for a good portion of the student body with little or no change.
Fall break is a wonderful institution. For virtually every student at the University, the two weeks preceding the extra-long weekend were absolutely packed with papers, tests and projects. Once Wednesday night rolled in, most students gave a collective sigh of relief. It was over.
Professors surely know how wearing those hell weeks can be for students. The break really marks a cut-off point in the semester. Exams and projects must be done before that period so we can enjoy the break. So, loading all of those tests into the two weeks prior to break is regrettable, but understandable. Professors are actually doing us a favor by putting them all before break, because students would forget a fair
Matthew Dunavan
opinion@kansan.com
amount of material if the test were after break.
Not all professors are cemented into the midterm-final test routine.
But, it is precisely because of the stress and exhaustion from these tests and projects that fall break is necessary. Students would want, but would not need, a break at just about any time. If the tests were scattered throughout the semester, students would be able to manage the levels of stress and not end up pulling all-night study sessions, depriving them of the sleep that necessitates the break in the first place. Regardless of how much a student has studied during the semester already, when 30 to 50 percent of her final grade is on the line, she studies again.
Many choose to have tests far more frequently, which often aids students. Because each test is worth less than the total grade, they have to study with less rigor, which keeps the stress levels manageable. Students could be saved the mental and physical wear by spreading testing over a larger period.
The breaks are, inadvertently, their own cause. Without them, they would be unnecessary. With them in a semester, they are a lifesaver from the mental wearing away that they helped to create. The better solution, it seems to me, would be to do away with fall break entirely. The extra time off could be added to the beginning or end of the semester. The two days could even be broken up and scattered through the semester.
There seems to be no advantage to keeping the breaks in their present form that could not be met by some other arrangement, and they create the disadvantage of increased student mental and physical stress. It is time to re-evaluate how our time off is structured, and find a better way.
Dunavan is a Topeka senior, in political science and philosophy.
editorial board
Compact skips over incentives
Recently the University of Kansas, along with 16 other Kansas colleges, signed on to a nationwide campus initiative called the Campus Compact. The Campus Compact emphasizes the importance of civic literacy and community service among students in higher education institutions. In the press conference following the pledge of support, Chancellor Robert Hemenway said this could be something KU graduates look back on and would be proud to be recognized as an active participant in their campus democracy.
However, if students do not have the initiative now to become a part of their campus democracy, what would this Campus Compact do to encourage them? The simple answer is nothing. If students really want to get involved in their campus, they need more than another symbolic action by University administration. If Hemenway is really serious about decreasing the student apathy on campus and empowering students, he should explore and promote the existing organizations on campus that provide these services. As of right now, Hemenway's future plans for the Campus Compact are unknown, but he did show similarities between the purpose of this organization and the purpose of the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics.
According to its mission statement, Campus Compact promotes community service by developing students' citizenship skills and values through partnerships with the other 900 college leaders who have pledged the same oath. Ironically, groups like the Center for Community Outreach are already actively pursuing these goals. As a result, the Campus Compact appears to provide no new incentives or services for students that do not already exist through the leadership opportunities available at the Dole Institute of Politics, the Center for Campus Life and Student Senate. Upon a closer look at the mission statement, this Campus Compact seeks to improve the administration's ability to incorporate values of civic literacy into classrooms and offices and to set an example for student involvement. Certainly a city with the reputation for being a place in Kansas for liberal activities has plenty of citizens, especially University faculty and staff, who encourage student activism and serve as role models.
The University needs to take proactive steps to increase student participation in politics and civic involvement. The only way the Campus Compact can achieve this goal is working with other University programs. If this is the objective of the program, then it has the potential to be a springboard for student activism. But if it is just another symbolic gesture to increase the status of our school rankings, it needs to do more than merely identify the lack of student involvement. It needs to get the students fired up about issues affecting them directly and give them an avenue to express those opinions.
Amanda Flott for the editorial board
perspective
'Under God' phrase protected by U.S. Constitution
What exactly is this whole "Separation of Church and State" issue anyway? You hear it everywhere today. It seems pretty important. So where is it located in our founding documents? If you answered "in the Constitution," you might want to brush up on your history. The correct answer is "nowhere."
The Supreme Court has taken up the issue of "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance and will rule on it sometime next year. A lower court agreed with a California man who said that to make his daughter say such words in the pledge at grade school was unconstitutional. Critics of "under God" are rallying around the aforementioned catch phrase: "The Separation of Church and State."
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Matthew Pirotte
opinion@kansan.com
Unfortunately for those critics, our country is not run by catch phrases, it's run by the Constitution.
On the issue of church and state, the First Amendment has this to say: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Some have suggested that
That conclusion simply does not follow from the text. All that amendment prohibits is action in the legislature to create an official religion. There is nothing to suggest that the word "God" must be absent from state institutions.
All of our money would certainly have to be scrapped because of "In God we Trust." How insensitive we are to force law-abiding Wiccans and Hindus to plunk such offensive quarters in
this sentence can be extended to preclude any mention of anything vaguely religious in any arena under governmental jurisdiction. Rubbish.
R
In 1954, Congress placed the words "under God" in the Pledge to separate us from the presumably heathen Communists. Legally speaking, members of Congress had every right to do so.
The consequences of such a ruling could be interesting. Allow me to lead you down the path of the logic utilized by the opponents of "under God."
And bad news folks, no more winter breaks. We wouldn't want to offend those who still believe in the ancient Greek Pantheon and see no reason to use the birth of Jesus Christ as a reason to miss class.
If the Court does decide to remove the two "offending" words, it will be ruling on the basis of the "Separation" catch phrase rather than on the basis of the Constitution. In effect, the Court will unilaterally decide that any form of even slightly religious activity should be barred from the public sphere.
What they could NOT have done was to add "under Allah," "under Jesus," or "under Zeus." If the thread of this piece is not becoming apparent through suggestion let me state it unequivocally: "under God" does not represent the establishment of a state religion by the legislature and therefore cannot be correctly struck down by the Supreme Court.
The great seal of the University has also got to go. It features Moses, who, while being perfectly acceptable to Jews, Christians and Muslims, is most likely unspeakably offensive to Zen Buddhists and people who worship trees.
the Coke machines on campus.
All kidding aside, you can approve of "under God" or not, but it is constitutional. If the Supreme Court decides to remove it, the Court will be way out of line and even further out of the law. Then again, it wouldn't be the first time that happened.
Clearly, a one-day break between first and second semester would be much less abrasive and leave everyone much happier.
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Pirote is a Joplin, Mo., senior in history. He is a member of the editorial board.