4A the university daily kansan
opinion
friday, september 5,2003
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editorial board
Union suits KJHK better
Tomorrow, the Kansas University Memorial Corporation Board will determine the fate of KJHK, the University's radio station. The board, which runs the Kansas and Burge Unions, will finalize management decisions about the station from the school of journalism.
The school has been looking for another campus entity to take over the station for a few years instead of closing the station. A change of management makes sense for both the station and the school.
Officials in the school of journalism thought the school should not financially support an operation that does not directly benefit its students. While KIHK has regularly scheduled news programs, much of the station's content is not based in journalism.
in journalism. KJHK is not known for news coverage. Instead, it has gained a local reputation for playing music that is hard to find on other area radio stations.
Also, jobs are scarce in the declining field of radio news and sports, and the school does not offer a degree in radio journalism. And while the journalism school's curriculum stresses "convergence," the ability of journalists to work in many different types of media, most courses focus on newspaper or television work.
Bymoving under the jurisdiction of the Memorial Corporation and falling under a system dedicated to serving all of the students of the University, KJHK will be able to find an audience based on students' needs. The Kansas and Burge Unions are better suited for meeting the needs of students, already directing such programs as Student Union Activities and the Organizations and Leadership Development Center, the home to many campus groups.
running the station. A KJHK that's separate from the school of journalism means less intrusion for the station and more compatibility for the school.
With the move will come a change in the station's administration and advisement. Previously, the station's adviser was a journalism faculty member, dividing time between running the station and teaching classes. As a part of the Unions, KJHK will benefit from having a new adviser who can dedicate more time to running the station.
Donovan Atkinson for the editorial board
letter to the editor
Football team, coaches thank students for support
Dear KU Students:
On behalf of the football coaching staff, and more importantly, the members of the KU football team, we want to thank you for your terrific support last Saturday night at Memorial Stadium. You were certainly at the top of your game!
tainly at the top of your game.
We want you to know how much we appreciate your hanging in there through the rainstorm to cheer on your Jayhawks. That's the kind of spirit that will help get us where we want to be a football team! We also want you to know that your fellow students on the team are working very hard to reward your support with winning football. We have no doubt that WITH YOUR HELP our efforts will pay off soon.
Again, thank you very much for showing what great fans you are! We look forward to seeing you at the UNLV game Saturday - in much better weather!
Sincerely,
Mark Mangino
Football coach
University of Kansas
1
stinson
Act to end state death penalty
Zach Stinson for The University Daily Kansen
When the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the death penalty in 111 cases Tuesday, it again brought the debate over the death penalty to the forefront of the national consciousness.
COMMENTARY
Here in Kansas, questions about the fairness and application, let alone the morality, of the death penalty have been raised since the Legislature reinstated the punishment in 1994. With new national attention focused on the death penalty, let's examine a few of the multiple reasons to abolish the death penalty in Kansas.
First, the risk of the death penalty varies in different parts of the state. In Sedgwick County, five cases have ended in the death sentence. In Wyandotte County, there were twice as many capital cases as in Sedgwick, but none resulted in the death penalty. Is the life of someone in Sedgwick worth more than a life in Wyandotte? Why are murders treated differently in different counties?
Travis Weller opinion@kansan.com
different in her states, the pressure Second, as in other states, the pressure for conviction can lead to prosecutorial misconduct. The Kansas Supreme Court pointed this out in a death penalty decision in 2001. The decision read, "We note that the instances of prosecutorial misconduct were numerous." The decision goes on to state that there was significant pressure placed on the prosecution to secure the death penalty. Could politics influence the treatment of capital cases in Kansas? Could political pressure deny a defendant his or her rights?
Are there other instances of gross prosecutorial misconduct in other death penalty cases?
Finally, the death penalty is expensive. Most people think that the death penalty is expensive because of the number of appeals given to defendants. They then say that the number of appeals should be lowered. However, saving money by denying people the right to adequate defense is not the answer. In fact, death penalty cases cost more because more motions are filed, more experts are called, juries are more closely examined and trials last longer. All of these are necessary costs if we decide that the state has the right to kill someone. Abolishing the death penalty would avoid these costs.
because we still have time to act. The time for action is now.
death penalty was. In Kansas, we are luckier than people in most states. Yes, Kansas has the death penalty, but the state has yet to execute a person. It has not been for lack trying. Seven Kansas men have been sentenced to death since the state re-established the death penalty in 1994. We are lucky
In fact, the Kansas Supreme Court will hear a mandatory appeal of Kansas' second death penalty case Monday. The appeal and arguments are open to the public. I suggest that you go to Topeka on Monday afternoon and hear the arguments for yourself.
Capital punishment in Kansas is facing new scrutiny. During the summer, the state appointed three committees to study aspects' of the death penalty. Also, a bill has been introduced in the state legislature calling for a moratorium on the penalty. Concerned students should contact their state representative and senator and tell them to support the bill.
There are many reasons to end the death penalty in Kansas. There is its arbitrary nature, the possibility for misconduct by the prosecuting attorney and its high cost. All of these are good reasons to end the death penalty, but at its heart, the argument against capital punishment is simple: Taking a life is not the answer to any crime. Killing is horrible and senseless. There is no reason we should allow our government to kill, and certainly not with our permission and our money.
and our money.
The time has come to end vengeful violence; we should start with state-sponsored executions.
Weller is a Garden City senior in sociology.
Free for All
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. Standerous 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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Will someone please tell the KJHK DJ not to list every song they have just played when they finish the set.
Blackboard is the root of all evil.
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To my roommate. If you are going to get high, please stop telling everyone that you have pink eye. It is just freaking everybody out.
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Freshmen smell like cabbage.
correction
Thursday's opinion page contained an error. The editorial for the face-off, "Where do religious representations belong? Nowhere near government," was credited to Amanda Flott. The writer was Stephanie Lovett.
Kansas could enjoy Arnold-esque spectacle
Kansas has never seen the kind of political cyborg that is rampaging its way through California. We would be so lucky to be involved with such a colorful experience in politics.
COMMENTARY
ence in pots. Out in California, they call this machine a Republican, but in reality he is the ultimate hybrid of two super powers.
the ultimate hybrid of two systems. Conventional Democratic weapons cannot stop him. He's pro-choice. He favors certain forms of gun control. Last year, he led a campaign in California that called for about $500 million in state spending on after-school programs. His positions on such issues make even the strongest Republicans pull over to the side of the road, get out of their SUV, and gasp for air.
ben McCarthy
opinion@kansan.com
up for all.
At the same time, these Republicans can't help but feel the need to pledge their support for this socialist-loving machine of a man. Like Luke Skywalker, Republicans can still see the "good" in Darth Schwarzenegger. For one, this machine they call "Arnold" says that he loves immigrants. He loves them in such a unique way that in 1994 he supported California's immigrant-bashing Proposition 187. An Arnold may truly be a "New Republican," as advertised. Let's hope the Republicans can continue to find
other immigrants who are willing to do the dirty work for them.
the dirty work for them. We have seen a predecessor to this monstrosity of a political machine. They called it "Clinton." It was an older, slower, chubbier model than Arnold.
Clinton, a T-800 Republi-crat, paved the way for the political machines of ideological fusion to tiptoe on both sides of the fence as they make their way into power. By day, the Clinton machine was a free-wheeling socialist, endorsing wonderful and wasteful programs such as midnight basketball leagues. By night, he was big businesses' best buddy, deregulating everything and its dog and paving the way for the economic boom of the 1990s.
Republicans would have none of the Clinton T-800. They publicly shunned
the machine's sexual habits. Now comes the revelation that Arnold, a T-1000 Republi-crat, still carries the old bedside practices of his predecessor. If this were five years ago, the Republicans would be the first to vilify such behavior in a public official. Now, they must borrow a line from their supposed, Democratic foes and convince the public that the T-1000 should not have his personal life judged (or litigated) on his way into office.
during his reign as Mr. (King of the) Universe. Did Clinton mention to Arnold that cigars, and not illegal substances, would somehow be his undoing? What wonderful advice from Captain Fellatio. Ignore the 'roids, cover up the Cubans!
(or litigated) off his way toward Like the Clinton machine, Arnold appears to have a fence-straddling position on the subject of gay rights. Arnold has said that he has no sexual standards for judging others and that "When it comes to sex, I don't give a s— what anyone's trip is." Hmmm, a very public-like way of articulating the issue. Maybe there is still hope for a guy that George Will and Ari Fleischer have trouble endorsing.
endorsing.
Behind the scenes, Arnold goes to "Vince Foster lengths" to quash photos of him holding a cigar. The "Governator" felt the publicity of his cigar-smoking habit would be ill suited as the former leader of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. At the same time, Arnold has done nothing to discredit reports that he was loaded up on steroids
Schwarzenegger has also been a major financial contributor to the Simon Wiestenhal Center, a prominent Jewish institution in Los Angeles. Big deal! What son of a Nazi policeman isn't donating large sums of money to Jewish organizations? Now, that's what I call having the best of both worlds!
Somewhere Clinton is smiling, watching his offspring follow in his footsteps and checking on the marital status of Halle Berry.
But what about Kansas? Where is our piece of the pie? When do we get our own admitted weed-smoking, fornicator in charge of running our state? Let's hope Californians take a chance on the "Governator." California's political atmosphere gives us hope that one day we might enjoy our own state-of-the-art Republi-crat in Kansas.
McCarthy is a Lenexa nontraditional student.