4A the university daily kansan
opinion
thursday, august 21, 2003
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Michelle Burhenn editor.
864-4854 or mburhenn@kansan.com
Lindsay Hanson and Leah Shaffer managing editors
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Louise Stauffer and Stephen Shupe opinion editors 864-4924 or opinion@kansan.com
Amber Agee
business manager
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Taylor Thode
retail sales manager
864-4358 or adsaes@kansan.com
budget. As opposed to e-mail, parents tend to rely on more traditional means of communication such as "snail mail," where they get most of their bills.
Malcolm Gibson
general manager and news adviser
864-7667 or mgibson@kansan.com
Such a system greatly benefits the University. With savings on paper and with fewer bulk mailings, the University may see some extra money in its budget.
Matt Fisher
sales and marketing adviser
864-7666 or mfisher@kansan.com
editorial board
If a parent fails to check e-mail often enough, the University should certainly be able to charge $100 late fees, which
E-mail billing will leave parents spent
The University of Kansas recently informed students that it will no longer be mailing tuition or other bills to residences of students or their parents. Instead, the University has opted to conduct billings by e-mail in yet another penny-pinching, cost-cutting, budget-efficient maneuver.
It does not serve as a major billing overhaul, but it does create problems for students and more for their parents. Many, if not all students, have regularly incorporated e-mail into their lives as a major form of communication. Most students check their e-mail every day and must register and communicate with the University online.
The problem arises for students and parents because many parents do not regularly use their e-mail. Because parents usually make the tuition payments, communication between the University and parents regarding tuition payments could fail.
are added after the bill is one day late.
The issue of the new billing system goes beyond parents not receiving emails. It signifies a trend in the University that reduces simple benefits for students while simultaneously increasing tuition at a pace far above the inflation rate. Ever since the University decided to impose a five-year tuition hike two years ago, students have seen lights turned off in the evenings earlier in academic halls and campus buildings shortening their hours.
Now with such proposals as the e-mail billing system, parents already feeling the burden financially can experience the deterioration of services as elementary as receiving mail along with their students.
With the slow economy of the last couple years taking its toll across the country, the University must look for means to save money. However, the first area the University seeks to save money comes from canceling services for students and parents, the same people the University asks to pay more tuition. The University needs to make money to remain a quality learning institution, but must look more within itself to save money rather than burdening those paying the tuition dollars.
Steve Vockrodt for the editorial board.
'Kansan'report card
Pass:
Ellsworth Hall reopens: $12 million and 16 months later, the suites look, well, sweet. For that kind of money, they'd better be.
■ Razing of Lindley Hall Annex: Lawmakers gave the OK to demolish the termite-infested, rotting structure within the year. The architectural drawing classes that used to be taught in the former WWII military cafeteria will be moved to other buildings because of new-found room on campus thanks to the Learned Hall addition. It's about time.
Campus sprinklers: Even though they constantly catch us by surprise and spray us in the face, it's OK for now, because it's 1,000 degrees outside. If they're still running in November, we'll talk.
Fail:
Fraternity hazing: University officials and police are investigating a possible hazing incident at Sigma Nu. C'mon guys, who would you rather obey, the law or a fraternity brother?
- Internet worm: The MSBlast Worm, also known as Lovsan, infected Windows XP and 2000 systems on campus, as well as the whole world. There's another one out called Sobig.F Worm. (To remove it download UndoSobig.F Tool at www.ku.edu/kyou.) As if setting up back to school technology isn't hard enough.
The program, not the students: Three Lawrence schools got a big fat "F" for test results not up to snuff under No Child Left Behind. The crimes? Low performance rates in reading and math from kids disabled or listed at federal poverty levels. The program provides zero funding for implementing reform. Who should hold who accountable here?
Willy's view
Elizabeth Willy for The University Daily Kansan
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. Slanderous and obscene statements will not be printed. Phone numbers of all incoming calls are recorded.
For more comments, go to www.kansan.com
It just doesn't feel right. I miss Roy.
照
Calling all students: Vote KU No.1 for party school.
I just want to start the year off right and remind everyone that Mizzou still sucks.
pretty friendly, too.
If you happen to dwell just east of campus, you're living in the most happening neighborhood in town: Oread. The "aura" of Oread, blended from its rich history, close proximity to both campus and downtown, and large population of active students, is tough to beat. A lot of non-students live in Oread too, because they love its unique appeal. Some were students
The sorting hat has placed me in the house of Hufflepuff.
In a fight, who do you think would win: a rabid elephant with a chain saw or a platypus with a pistol?
pretty friendly, too.
If you happen to dwell just east of campus, you're living in the most happening neighborhood in town: Oread. The "aura" of Oread, blended from its rich history, close proximity to both campus and downtown, and large population of active students, is tough to beat. A lot of non-students live in Oread too, because they love its unique appeal. Some were students
pretty friendly, too.
If you happen to dwell just east of campus, you're living in the most happening neighborhood in town: Oread. The "aura" of Oread, blended from its rich history, close proximity to both campus and downtown, and large population of active students, is tough to beat. A lot of non-students live in Oread too, because they love its unique appeal. Some were students
Kansan, this is God. I don't know about you guys, but the girls in 714 are hot. P.S. Joe, why haven't you called?
OK, so last year I had a friend who had a gallon of pee in his refrigerator. I still think that is weird.
--pretty friendly, too.
If you happen to dwell just east of campus, you're living in the most happening neighborhood in town: Oread. The "aura" of Oread, blended from its rich history, close proximity to both campus and downtown, and large population of active students, is tough to beat. A lot of non-students live in Oread too, because they love its unique appeal. Some were students
If I get sued by the recording industry for getting online right this very moment and downloading a Lonestar song, I am going to be really pissed off. It's a Lonestar song, and I really like it.
If it is yellow, let it mellow. If it is brown, flush it down.
--pretty friendly, too.
If you happen to dwell just east of campus, you're living in the most happening neighborhood in town: Oread. The "aura" of Oread, blended from its rich history, close proximity to both campus and downtown, and large population of active students, is tough to beat. A lot of non-students live in Oread too, because they love its unique appeal. Some were students
I just wanted to say that there is a God because my roommate's mom just bought carpet for our dorm. Thank you so much.
I am pretty sure that I was just in an episode of cops complete with search lights, fire trucks guns, chases, and confused people. My roommate's boyfriend is walking around in Hane's and a wife beater. Instead of chasing some half-naked drug addict, they are chasing some drunk frat boy setting random fires. I thought there wouldn't be anymore excitement now that I didn't live in McCullom. Silly me. There is a police car in my back yard.
pretty friendly, too.
If you happen to dwell just east of campus, you're living in the most happening neighborhood in town: Oread. The "aura" of Oread, blended from its rich history, close proximity to both campus and downtown, and large population of active students, is tough to beat. A lot of non-students live in Oread too, because they love its unique appeal. Some were students
The janitors that work in the Art and Design Building are the laziest group of people that I have ever seen. They have very little to do and by the time they have finished their job, they have four hours to sit around, read magazines and hide in closets. KU should fire these janitors.
perspective
Explore Oread neighborhood
GUEST COMMENTARY
Ah, the sights and sounds of Lawrence. For many of you new and returning KU students, the taste of being out on your own in a great college town is sweet indeed!Look around. No suburban, cookie-cutter community here. Open-minded folks everywhere promote fresh ideas and carrying on the traditions of a city that influenced the entire country from its founding in the mid-1800s. And most Lawrence folks are pretty friendly, too.
Charlie Goff III opinion@kansan.com
once upon a time; some have lived in the neighborhood all their lives.
As the coordinator of the Oread Neighborhood Association, I bid you all welcome to your new home, great to have you around! No doubt you will find a lot of reasons to smile here. Live it to the hilt, and while you're enjoying yourselves, become a part of the positive energy that makes Lawrence so nice. Have fun parties,
but make sure your neighbors aren't forced to jam plugs in their ears to block out your noise. Remember that trash cans and recycling bins are much prettier spots than the street for dumping old fast food wrappers and beer cans. Keep an eye on the weeds around your house and get out the wacker once in a while to keep your place from becoming the blight beacon on your block.
con on you or me And for you Oread dwellers who might be interested in meeting your neighbors,both the new ones and the long-termers, the Oread Neighborhood Association is hosting a potluck on Saturday, Sept. 20 . Come on out and mix it up! Call 842-5440 for information.
Goff is the Oread Neighborhood Association coordinator.
perspective
High-priced journals thwart scientific research
health of Kansans
In June, monkeypox cases were cropping up across the Midwest, and Kansas' first monkeypox patient had just been diagnosed. I was asked to present information about monkeypox -- a serious smallpox-like illness that had never before been seen in the United States -- to University of Kansas Medical Center doctors at an infectious disease discussion group. I especially wanted to tell the doctors about treatments, in case the Kansas vicum of the disease turned out not to be our last
This summer, high academic journal prices and monkeypox threatened the health of Kansans.
But I couldn't do that. Drugs to treat monkeypox had been studied, and the results had been published. But those brand-new studies were printed in the science journal Artificial Research, to which the University. In a cost-cutting measure, had canceled its subscription
in 1997. So Med Center doctors did not get the most up-to-date information, and we just had to hope that they wouldn't need it.
Access to such articles has decreased as the subscription rates for journals — especially those sold by for-profit publishers — have skyrocketed. For instance, a subscription to the science journal Brain Research, marketed by the publishing giant Elsevier, now costs the University $19,971 for a single year. KU libraries are paying more and getting less, and that means that you're getting less for your tuition.
Virtually all universities have been forced to cut journal subscriptions in recent years. As the number of academic journals — especially in the sciences — has grown, the cost for individual journal subscriptions has also increased. The Association of Research Libraries reports that between 1986
COMMENTARY
Rachel Robson opinion@kansan.com
and 2000 the average cost of a journal subscription went up four times the rate of inflation. The average university library spent almost twice on journal subscriptions in 2000 than what it did in 1986, and it got 7 percent fewer journals.
It's not clear why journal costs have increased so much, said Richard Fyffe, assistant dean of libraries for scholarly communication. What is clear is that
"journals published by profit-making companies are more expensive," Fyffe said. It's also true that for-profit journal publishers have reported high profit margins, as high as 30 percent.
Corporate journal publishers are primarily interested in making a profit, and their prices reflect those values. Journals marketed by for-profit publishers sometimes cost 20 times more than similar journals published by non-profit scholarly organizations.
"It became clear to me that universities were getting ripped off," said John A. Landgrebe, KU emeritus professor of chemistry, who signed an international petition at www.plos.org protesting high journal subscription rates.
We're all getting ripped off.
Most research reported in academic journals is publicly funded. When these journals are too expensive for our libraries, it means that we, as taxpayers, are
paying for studies we can't read. Other researchers can't read them, either. This thwarts scientific progress, by keeping scholars ignorant of the discoveries of their peers.
as journal prices go up, we all end up paying. We pay higher taxes. We pay higher tuition. We pay by having fewer books and other resources in our libraries. We pay in forgone discoveries, when researchers can't read journal articles that would otherwise have inspired their own work. We pay when doctors don't have information they might use in treating patients. We pay more all the time, but get less from price-gouging subsidiaries of international conglomerates.
It's time we demand that we get what we pay for.
Robson is a Baldwin City doctoral candidate in pathology.