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Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY Kansan
Published daily since 1912
Spencer Duncan, Editor
Lindsey Henry, Managing editor
Andrea Albright, Managing editor
Tom Eblen, General manager, news adviser
4A
Sarah Scherwinks, Business manager
Brian Pagel, Retail sales manager
Dan Simon, Sales and marketing adviser
Justin Knupp, Technology coordinator
Friday, October 3,1997
Clay McCuistion / KANSAN
Examining
Tenure review needs input from peers and students to be complete
When taking a class from a tenured professor, students usually expect the class to be good. Unfortunately, many find themselves in classes where they have to ask, "Who decided to give this teacher ture?"
The answer takes some explaining. However, the bottom line is that those who are most affected by shoddy tenured professors, the students, also are the ones who have the least say in the tenure-review process.
Instructors at the University traditionally come up for tenure review after serving six years as an assistant professor. Tenure candidates undergo careful examination by committees at the three levels: departmental, school or college and University. None of the committees have student representation.
The heart of the committees' review
process is a 24-page evaluation form. Most of this form is dedicated to evaluating the candidate's accomplishments in three areas: teaching, research and service. The only area where students have a shred of imput is with teacher evaluations.
A candidate's teacher evaluations include peer evaluations, student evaluations, the syllabuses of all courses the faculty member has taught and a personal statement of his or her teaching philosophy.
The student evaluations are the only tangible input that students have in the tenure review process. Associate Provost Sandra Gautt said that this was sufficient because the committees studied student evaluations from a six-year period. This is enough to provide a fair and comprehensive sampling of the instructor's relationships with students. Gautt said
However it is obvious that student evaluations are not providing enough accurate information on professors' effectiveness in class. Gautt said that tenure was designed to be a peer review. Students are not the peers of professors and therefore do not belong on tenure review committees.
But if the review committees would take time to talk with students when one of their professors is up for tenure, the committees would probably get comments that are more candid and insightful than what they get from hastily written evaluation forms.
Until students are more actively involved in the tenure process, they should take teacher evaluations seriously, because they are the only voice the committees will hear.
Liz Musser for the editorial board
Tenure preserves academic freedom
"What exactly does 'tenured' mean?" you may ask.
Ever had a professor squawk on about the theories of gibberish and other garbage without relevance? Possibly you've heard, "Oh, but he's a tenured professor."
"Tenure" just means that these crazy old teachers somehow have earned the right to teach forever.
However, this opinion is inaccurate. Tenure has its limitations. It also is a valuable necessity to a university community.
Recently, the necessity of tenure has come into question at some universities, with a handful even doing away with the practice. According to Richard DeGeorge, professor of philosophy at the University, tenure is
far from just job security. Instead, tenure is the best known means of preserving academic freedom. DeGeorge defines academic freedom as having three main aspects.
It gives a university the autonomy to decide class structure and material. Without this freedom, a university, especially a public university such as Kansas, will become the handmaid of state and political powers as professors are told what to teach.
Secondly, professors are the leading experts in their respective fields. Academic freedom calls for them to choose the relevant teaching material and teaching style. Without tenure a professor could potentially be fired for teaching unpopular lines of thought that did not match with the politically
powerful non-experts.
Thirdly, academic freedom calls for the faculty to provide students the best possible opportunity to learn. Thus tenure gives faculty the freedom to object to unfair policies and procedures without the fear of sudden unemployment.
Therefore, the effectiveness of tenure ultimately lies in the hands of a professor's colleagues. If reluctant to weed out incompetence, professors may be saving a peer from early pension, but they are not honoring the fundamentals of tenure and are endangered academic freedom. Students not only do not want to attend the class of an incompetent professor but also do not want professors ordered how to teach by an outside source.
Kansan staff
Cody Simms for the editorial board
Bradley Brooks ... Editorial
Jason Strait ... Editorial
Jodie Chester ... News
Jen Smith ... News
Adam Darby ... News
Charity Jeffries ... Online
Kristine Blasi ... Sports
Tommy Gallagher ... Associate Sports
Dave Morantz ... Campus
Eric Weslander ... Campus
Ashleigh Roberts ... Features
Steve Puppe ... Photo
Bryan Volk ... Design graphics
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Ann Marchand ... Special sections
Lachelle Rhoades ... News clerk
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Michael Soifer . Campus
Colleen Eager . Regional
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"Live long and prosper"
Broadon your mind: Today's quote
-- Spock
How to submit letters and guest columns
Leters: Should be double-spaced typed and fewer than 200 words. Letters must include the author's signature, name, address and telephone number plus class and home-town if a University student. Faculty or staff must identify their positions.
Guest columns Should be double-
spaced typed with fewer than 700 words. The writer must be willing to be photographed for the column to run.
All letters and guest columns should be submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Staufer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Bradley Brooks (brooks@kansan.com) or Jason Strait (jstrait@kansan.com) at 864-4810. If you have general questions or comments, e-mail the staff steff (opinion@kansan.com) or call 864-4810.
Raving
Campus deaths possibly preventable with care
Bradley Brooks irooks@tansan.com
"I only" is a recurring thought about last Friday's tragic death in Ellsworth Hall.
"If only ..."
Such was the case of Angie Griffin, Ulysses freshman, who died in her 10th-floor room in Ellsworth Hall early last Friday. She was in the room by herself that morning and the preceding night, and her neighbors reported they heard her coughing in the hours leading up to her death
The first thing I thought was that this young woman's death was preventable. She could have
been saved. She should have been saved.
been saved. So he did not have been saved.
"Why in the hell didn't they help her?" I muttered to myself upon reading the story of her death in Saturday's "Lawrence Journal-World." Why didn't they knock on her door and ask if everything was all right? That is all it might have taken to save her life.
But then I realized that if I had heard my neighbor coughing and carrying-on all night, I'd probably curse him or her under my breath, cover my head with a pillow and go back to sleep. I, like most of us, would have reacted in exactly the same way Angie's neighbors did last Thursday night. By doing nothing.
What can possibly be learned from this?
That life is fragile? That the loss of someone who doesn't live a full life is a tragedy?
We all hear this after the death of a young person. We hear it to the point that it becomes cliche, hollow sentences that seem not to ring true.
For instance, it has been reported that Griffin had some upper-respiratory problems or possibly mononucleosis. Her father told a "Kansan" reporter that she might have died from an irregular heartbeat. He also said that she might have died from an allergic reaction to medicine, a statement that has to be the worst nightmare of Watkins Memorial Health Center, whose representatives won't confirm she
Like most journalists, I search for truth and meaning by using words. I want to uncover the reality of what is happening around me and pass it on. And there are a lot of questions to ask and a lot of truth to be answered in the case of Angle Griffin.
We at the "Kansan" know this lesson. This past summer, in the early morning hours of June 11, LaTina Sullivan, the summer editor of our paper, had a severe asthma attack and died shortly after dropping off one of her colleagues at home. Although I was gone for the summer, I've learned that she, too, had been coughing before she died and showing signs which, in hindsight, might have tipped someone off.
But nobody really noticed anything. And if they did, they didn't think too much about it. Very few people knew she had asthma, let alone knew that it could and would kill her.
To me, one of the saddest things about the death of Angie Griffin is that she lived on Ellsworth Hall's "3E" floor. Those three "Es" stand for "Experience Excellence in Ellsworth." This is a floor set up to build an intense community experience, to make sure that these students have a close-knit group of people to live with in their first year at the University. In other words, these people are really tight.
was treated there. If Angie did visit a doctor before she died, it probably was at Watkins.
And if no one on this floor had asked if she needed help — and insisted on that help — then it is highly unlikely that anyone would have.
But somehow, I don't think finding the answers to any of these questions is the point. Knowing the exact reason why this young woman died can do nothing to help her, her family or you and me understand and learn anything from what happened.
And that is the simple lesson that can be learned: That we as human beings have to take care of each other. That if we go out of our way just a little bit, we can really help someone out. That by a compassionate insistence, we can possibly prevent a little pain or worse. That the men and women on the 10th floor of Ellsworth Hall may be dealing with a truckload of guilt. Yet what would you or I have done differently?
Angie Griffin's death probably was preventable. LaTina Sullivan's death probably was preventable. The fact that we, as human beings, care for each other is undeniable.
Let's remember that the question asked, the action taken can help avoid a world of hurt.
Brooks is a Hill City senior in journalism and an editorial editor.
Feedback
'Kansan' guilty of greek bashing
I understand that you must report what is happening on campus, and we the students are grateful everyday for that, but I feel that you should report both sides of the story and provide the whole truth for KU students.
I am writing in response to the negative attitude that the "Kansan" has had with the greek community, especially in the past two weeks.
Holly Yauch Palatine, Ill., sophomore
I understand that the events surrounding Bacchanalia may not have been the most respectable or best decision made, but it is not the "Kansan's" place to be biased and continually ridicule these mistakes. I understand that you must report the story; however, you seem to have no problem pointing out any mistakes the Greek system may make (even though there are just as irresponsible mistakes occurring all over campus everyday). You never mention the positives of the Greek system. The students reading the "Kansan" never hear how well academically the student of the Greek system do, you never mention the countless hours of community service that is done by the Greek system and you never point out the positive social events that occur everyday in the Greek community.
Well, the time has arrived for another full-year session of greek bashing. Pathetically poor reporters, cartoonists and editorial columns are produced and published for KU students at assembly line speed.
Reports describe a shoving contest at Delta Upson's Greg Wilkerson Memorial Football Tournament as a tournament- halting brawl. Furthermore, the reporter is so inadequate that she did not even realize that this tournament is not an intramural game.
Other increasingly worthless articles try to correlate Sigma Nu's party with an ancient
MacRae is not the only columnist or cartoonist to lose all sense given to him. Many more reporters before him have made the same stupid mistakes.
It's obvious to me that jealousy is the problem. With outstanding principles and distinguished qualities they have their problems, but instead of helping inform campus of news from our Greek counter-
My final thought is jealousy.
At about 4,500 members, greeks support Kansas's student population in community service hours and dollars, the highest cumulative grade point average and the best parties — costume, theme and Sadie Hopkins-type parties. In fact, if it wasn't for loyal Greek alumni we wouldn't have a working Campanile.
story of orgies and the god of wine. Really? I doubt that this tradition began with the mutilation and feast of raw cattle. Maybe if Robert MacRae is lucky, then the party might have begun because of orgies and wine seems about as morally challenging as a Puff-Pant Prom. As a graduate student, MacRae should understand that such a party probably has a special importance within the Sigma Nu fraternity—a meaning that does not concern any non-member.
I have a few thoughts as to why the "Kansan" supports such wonderfully ignorant columnists, cartoonists and reporters. The first could be that here is nothing on and off campus that would interest a KU student. Those words should not even be in a reporter's vocabulary, so I know that is not the reason. This is one of the midwest's few cultural Meccas. Something is always happening. Another thought might be that the Greek system is flawed. Of course it is, so is everything humans create. Usually when the "Kansan" produces quality articles about the greek community there is an actual problem, such as the Delta Chi probation and the Zeta Beta Tau closing. Unfortunately, those are few and far between. So what about the rest of the articles?
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Today's music no match for past
Anna Attkisson's column on Monday was heartless and if she is looking for answers to today's music industry, I'll try to give it to her as clean as I can.
Doug Evans
Lenexa junior
parts, go right ahead and light a match of hatred.
Music of today, for the most part, is bad. Boyz II Men, Nine Inch Nails, Metallica and Pearl Jam are exceptions. And even these bands can't compete with the likes of Aerosmith, Kiss, The Doobie Brothers, The Beatles or Elvis Presley.
Why is music today bad? Every band is trying to copy some other band's sound, or are selling out to make music that is not their sound, but instead a sound to satisfy the public. 311, enough said.
People don't want to search for new music, especially music that isn't worth listening too. People want to hear the classic sounds of The Rolling Stones, The Doors and Queen, because these bands had originally to them. Songs like "Satisfaction," "Light My Fire" and "Another One Bites the Dust" could do well on the charts today if they were brand new. People reading this now are probably singing one of those tunes in their heads now, not some song by Rusted Root, Kula Shakur or Widespread Panic.
And Attkisson's essentially calling Elton John a sellout was a heartless and cruel thing to say. This song is the ultimate tribute to one of the world's greatest humans ever.
Finally, Attkisson was gripping about Kiss on tour. Have you seen the kind of show Kiss puts on? In the memory of Elvis, long live the king.
Brad Hallier Mission junior