4A the university daily kansan
opinion
monday,august25,2003
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editorial board
Smokers should keep it in the zone
In an effort to make the University of Kansas a healthier environment, a nosmoking policy was instituted in all campus buildings.
The Department of Student Housing, which once took smoking preferences into account when assigning roommates, restricted smoking in the residence and scholarship halls.
Most buildings on campus have smoke-free entrances that prohibit smoking within 20 feet of the doorways.
While the Office of the Provost establishes the smoke-free entrances and Facilities Operations posts signs, little is done to enforce the policy.
little is done to officials University officials are unable to monitor entrances 24 hours a day and cannot punish all offenders.
cannot punish an offender. It is up to students and faculty members to exercise social responsibility in complying to the policy and reporting violations.
Smokers should respect the policy and be sure to smoke away from entrances, regardless of the temptation of benches and ashtrays located within the 20-foot, no-smoking radius.
Smokers should also respect the rights of non-smokers to not inhale, moving away from designated non smoking areas if asked.
smoking areas in a building. However, non-smokers should remain courteous when asking smokers to comply to the University's policy.
ers to comply to the convictions.
If the smoker does not comply, a complaint can be filed with the department of human resources.
ment of human In some cases, complaints regarding violations of the smoke-free entrance policy can be taken to the administrator of the building where the violation occurred.
For many buildings, this can be to the dean of a school, such as the School of Journalism in Stauffer-Flint Hall or the School of Engineering in Learned Hall.
When a violation occurs outside of general use buildings such as Wescoe Hall, it can be difficult to determine where to direct the complaint.
where to direct the In most cases, the department closest to the location of the violation can handle complaints.
In all cases of reporting violations or filing complaints, students should try to have as much information as possible. The name of the offender, the location, the time of the violation and any other specifics are helpful in handling complaints.
Punishments for violations by faculty members can range from an informal discussion to written warnings and maybe even counseling.
maybe even college Punishments for students would follow the guidelines described in the student code of conduct.
In order to preserve a healthy working environment, the University has laid down policies for creating nonsmoking areas of campus.
However, it is a matter of social responsibility on the part of students and staff to enforce these policies.
Donovan Atkinson for the editorial board
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perspective
Don't go through system without making change
Jennifer Wade/Kansan
There are problems at the University of Kansas.
COMMENTARY
I know this may come as a surprise, especially to freshmen reading this. Since you came for your junior or senior tour of campus, people have painted a bright and rosy picture of our campus on the hill. Judging solely from the KU brochures, I would expect the whole campus to smell like roses, a place where the sun always shines and all your papers are turned in the day before they're due.
This picture is not reality.
The University of Kansas is a great school and Lawrence is a great town, but there are problems here.
Travis Weller
opinion@kansan.com
Yeah, we have some problems.
Tuition is skyrocketing. State support for higher education is stagnant. There is significant poverty and homelessness in town. Rapes and hate crimes have been reported in our community.
Yeah, we have so much I don't want to only paint a dreary picture. The silver lining to this thundercloud is the potential for change.
work to clean up some of the mess
It is easiest to start here at the University.
is the potential for change As college students, we shouldn't wait for someone else to correct the problems we see. It is up to us to take the time and work to clean up some of this mess.
sity. Angry about the lack of lighting between your car parked at the Lied Center and your residence hall room on Daisy Hill? Talk to your Residence Assistant and find out who to write a letter to. Concerned that you may not be able to pay for gas in
your car next year if tuition rises any higher? Write the Chancellor an e-mail and tell him about your concerns.
and ten min about your issue The first step is making your issue known. Use your voice, your computer and your pen to express your frustration and unease. If you just vent to your roommate or your cat about what's troubling you, it's doubtful the situation will improve.
Second, organize. Talk to friends, people in your classes, random strangers on Wescoe Beach, and see whether others notice the same problems that you do. Encourage them to express their concerns to those in power. You might find that a group of students is already doing something about your dilemma. Stop by the Center for Campus Life in the Kansas Union to pick up a complete list of all of the registered student groups on campus. If you don't find one there that will work on your issue, it only takes you and two friends to start a new group. Research who has the ability to change what you want
changed, find out how other campuses have responded to similar problems. Plan events, plan meetings, work to educate other students about the problem and encourage them to share their concerns with those who can change things.
all those who can change and intimidating, but remember that students just like you have made incredible changes in the past. Students significantly contributed to the peace movement against the Vietnam War. Students organized against racial discrimination and segregation in the 1960s. Even if your issue is something smaller than war or racism, there have been successes before you. Recently, students have successfully organized to provide more lighting on campus, fall break, and soon, a new Multicultural Resource Center.
new Multi-Community
The possibilities are endless for how to go about changing our community. It's important to commit to making changes. Each person should work to improve the world around her or him. No one should sit idly by while others suffer. It is easy to sit in your room or your apartment and say that you can't make a difference. Nothing good has ever been accomplished by sticking to what's easy. Don't just float through your four or five years at the University. Decide now that when you leave the University, it will be a better place because you were a student here.
Weller is a Garden City senior in sociology.
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It's about the work, not the GTAs
In Friday's article "University makes list for GTA classes," (The University Daily Kansan, Aug. 22), one of your reporters described me as wishing that my department had fewer teaching assistants and more full-time faculty.
In fact, what I said was that I wished
teaching assistants didn't have to do such a large share of the teaching in my department, and that I wished we had enough full-time faculty to reduce the teaching assistants' load.
teaching assistants I didn't say, nor is it true, that I wish there were fewer teaching assistants in my department.
Ben Eggleston, assistant professor of philosophy
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There is no such thing thing as too much ninjas.
Besides the fact that Cal Creek doesn't seem to have any grammatical skill or the grasp on the mechanics of writing, he also just needs to know how to do math properly. If Freddy vs. Jason is the eleventh Jason movie and the eighth Freddy movie, that would make it overall the eighteenth movie not the nineteenth.
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Come on, we're going streaking through the quad and the gymnasium. Bring your green hat.
I am willing to bet that the janitors in the Art and Design building are so engrossed in reading magazines, sitting around and so on because they are so exhausted from doing the work that they do before you even get up in the morning. They probably have some other job just to keep body and soul together. I think that what you should be rooting for is a living wage for these people.
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Neither animal would win. They don't have opposeable thumbs. It doesn't matter that they have a chain saw or a pistol if they can't shoot the gun or turn the chain saw on. It's ludicrous. The elephant is just going to win because it is going to smash the guts out of the platypus. God, what are you, retarded?
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All I need is alcohol and vagina.
With all of the changes that KU Info has made, it sucks now.
If Ben McCarthy's article "Flight for Corporate Rights" was satire, it was brilliant. I hope it was satire.