Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY Kansan
Published daily since 1912
Spencer Duncan, Editor
Lindsey Henry, Managing editor
Andrea Albright, Managing editor
Tom Eflen, General manager, news adviser
Sarah Scherwinski, Business manager Brian Pagel, Retail sales manager Dan Simon, Sales and marketing adviser Justin Knupp, Technology coordinator
Friday, September 26, 1997
Albuquerque Journa;
Athlete's angle
Student athletes contribute more to University than final box score
As president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, I feel that it is time that the students and faculty at the University of Kansas understand what it means to be a student athlete. It
seems that all this university knows of the actions and activities of its athletes remains within the confines of a narrow box score: games won, games lost and nothing more. It is this narrow view of college athletes that has given us such a pathetically weak image.
Please remember that our athletic department chooses to call us not simply athletes, but more appropriately student athletes. Contrary to the popular myth that we are all just dumb jocks trying to squeak by with
Maria
Abatjoglou
gonion@kansan.com
as little effort as possible, there is a reason for the use of the term student athlete. The University of Kansas Athletic Department views its players as students first, competitors second. Don't get me wrong, there isn't much space between the former and latter, but that order indeed does exist. I have never in my four years of involvement with KU athletics felt that my academic career was being stifled by my athletic expectations.
If you don't believe me, then let the statistics speak for themselves. In the spring of 1997, 181 out of 500 athletes were named Jayhawk Scholars; that is 37 percent of student athletes that achieved a grade point average of 3.0 or better. Out of those, 25 students earned a perfect 4.0. Women's softball accumulated a 3.3 team GPA — keep in mind that it accomplished this during the season, traveling virtually every other weekend and posting a winning record. And you must remember those all too popular names Jerod Haase and Jacque Vaughn. They aren't the only ones who have achieved Academic-All-American honors. This year, Kansas placed No. 8 in the nation in total Academic-All-Americans and No. 4 in NCAA Division I-A schools.
But then you say, well, all this was possible because their tutors do all of their work for them. If it were
only that easy. Seriously, who would be desperate enough to spend their days doing the homework of others? Especially considering that the majority of the tutors are actually in graduate school themselves. In addition, who do you think takes the tests? The tutors? No.
Finally, if tutors did all the work, would our football team produce a team GPA as embarrassingly low as it has been in the past? If our football players were here to just to compete, new head football coach Terry Allen would not be emphasizing academics as strongly as he now is.
If you find it hard to believe that student athletes actually care about their academics, wait until you hear this one. student athletes are involved with an extensive amount of community service. What? Community service? Athletes, giving back, helping someone other than themselves? How could that be?
Once again, let the facts speak for themselves. Last year during the K-State football game, KU athletes teamed up with K-State athletes to raise $2,000 for the American Cancer Society by selling buttons. We also sponsored a food drive in conjunction with the greek system where we collected so much food that the food shelter didn't have enough trucks to carry it all. This Sept. 27, the athletic department is sponsoring its sixth-annual Camp Jayhawk in which underprivileged Kansas City youths play sports with all the student athletes. On March 7, we are helping Habitat for Humanity build a home. Honestly, this list could go on, but I think you get the point. There is a community out there, and the student athletes are well aware of that.
I know that this article may come as a huge shock to you, and I actually hope that it does. I hope that it makes you realize that there is a lot more to the student athlete than just a dumb jock running around in Nike gear. We are students, we are members of the community, and yes we are athletes who compete to bring a winning tradition to your University.
Abatjoglou is a South Charleston, W.Va., junior in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and a senior member of the women's tennis team.
Kansan staff
News editors
Bradley Brooks ... Editorial
Jason Strait ... Editorial
Jodie Chester ... News
Jen Smith ... News
Adam Darby ... News
Charity Jeffries ... Online
Kristie Blasi ... Sports
Tommy Gallagher ... Associate Sports
Dave Morantz ... Campus
Eric Weslander ... Campus
Ashleigh Roberts ... Features
Steve Puppe ... Photo
Bryan Volk ... Design, graphics
Mitch Lucas ... Illustrations
Mark McMaster ... Wire
Ann Marchand ... Special sections
Lachelle Rhoades ... News clerk
Advertising managers
Matt Fisher . . . Assistant retail
Michael Soifer . . . Campus
Colleen Eager . . . Regional
Anthony Migilazzo . . National
Jeff Auslander . . Marketing
Chris Haghirian . . Internet
Brian LeFevre . . Production
Jen Wallace . . Production
Dustin Skidgel . Promotions
Tyler Cook . . Creative
Annette Hoover . Public relations
Rachel O'Neill . Classified
Jaime Mann . Assistant classified
Marc Harrell . Senior account executive
Scott Swedland . Senior account executive
Advertising managers
Broaden your mind: Today's quote
"There is only one good, knowledge, and only one evil, ignorance."
—Socrates
How to submit letters and guest columns
Letters: 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 Stuart-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 page staff (opinion@kansan.com) or call 864-4810.
Feedback
Reel Big Fish not a 'sellout' band
I would really like to clear up this whole thing about selling out.
I have had many discussions with people at shows and just in general about what exactly selling out is. Selling out is changing your music so as to get a record deal or appeal to whatever happens to be trend. Reel Big Fish's album "Turn The Radio Off" came out in 1996, nearly an entire year ago. They've only just started to get serious national air play. They have not changed their sound one bit, however, to accommodate a record label.
The label they are attached to is Mojo Records. When they were signed to Mojo, the label had only one other band, Goldfinger. That doesn't exactly sound like a big faceless corporation to me. Reel Big Fish has worked very hard to build up a grassroots following, not relying on radio play, but live shows that are packed full of energy.
Ska has come and gone twice already, first in the sixties, then in the early eighties. It's come back hard every time. I don't think we have to worry about Reel Big Fish flipping burgers anymore.
Nick Spacek Lansing freshman
Lawrence in need of bicycle lanes
While reading the "Kansan's" report on the Sept. 23 rally outside City Hall in favor of bicycle lanes, I came across a disturbing follow up on the police investigation concerning Jon Hermes' fatal accident.
The "Kansan" reported that police investigators concluded that Hermes' accident was his own fault because he was on the right-hand side of the truck that struck him, when it is contrary to traffic law for a cyclist to be positioned to the right of a vehicle operating a right-hand turn. The investigators' conclusion is therefore valid, but only if one is concerned with blindly following traffic laws.
There is no safe way that Hermes could have weaved through traffic, watching behind him at every intersection, looking for vehicles that may have been getting ready to make a right-hand turn. Current traffic law suggests that this is what cyclists must do to protect themselves and follow traffic code at intersections, but that suggestion in plainly ludicrous.
One might suggest that bicyclists use sidewalks instead of streets in order to avoid the dangers automobile traffic. However, most sidewalks in Lawrence are not bicycle lanes, but rather pedestrian lanes, and again the bicycle rider would be at fault for any accidents with pedestrian traffic.
So the disturbing realization about Hermes' accident is that as a cyclist, he was totally unprotected by traffic law, and the city's lack of provisions for cyclist safety put him and all other bike riders in a life-threatening situation.
The city does not have enough bicycle lanes. Those which exist are inadequate. They not only are crowded by pedestrians, but are fractured and lead to "dead ends" where cyclists are forced to decide whether to continue their ride on a pedestrian lane and be liable for any accidents, or risk their lives on the street. Jon Hermes decided for the latter option, and it cost him his life.
Lawrence should have the dignity to finally recognize its shortcomings in the protection of its bicycle-riding citizens, and implement a comprehensive city-wide plan for bicycle paths in commercial, residential and thorough-fare areas.
Sara Pizarro Subtil Lawrence graduate student
'Kansan' orred in greek coverage
I am writing in response to the article "Fight interrupts intramural game" in the Sept. 22 "Kansan."
This article regarding Dena Upsilon's philanthropy, the Greg Wilkerson Memorial Flag Football Tournament, does not give due credit to the winners of the tournament, Alpha Chi Omega and Sigma Chi, or to our philanthropy itself. Our philanthropy chairman contacted the "Kansan" in hope of generating some positive and well-deserved publicity for The Villages, a home for underprivileged children in Topeka. Unfortunately, the fact that we raised $7,500 for this fine organization was buried in the 14th paragraph of the article.
I am surprised that a nationally recognized college newspaper would run such a headline when the referee was quoted as saying, "No punches were thrown. Two guys pushed and that was it." It is very frustrating to myself, and to the other members of Delta Upsilon who worked hard to organize this event, that a small altercation resulted in such a negative portrayal of our philanthropy, our fraternity and the Greek system as a whole.
The "Kansan" is not a tabloid, it is a professional publication and should represent itself as such.
Derek Dummormuth Marysville senior
This letter is in response to the article that ran Monday, Sept. 22 titled "Fight interrupts game." In the opening paragraphs, the writer seems to do a fine job of building the story up. Then the truths of the incident came out.
David Dummerman, game referee, said that "No punches were thrown. Two guys pushed and that was it." At this point I began to question the news worthiness of this article. It also made me ask myself if public scrutiny was a prerequisite for joining a campus organization.
In the past few years many articles have graced the pages of our beloved "Kansan" that have been of questionable content: from the highly publicized Student Senate scandals, to the daily doses of anti-Greek sentiment.
Frankly, I'm sick of it. I really don't think that just because a KU student joins a certain campus activity or group, he or she should be constantly placed in the spotlight.
The students of Kansas should be praised for such things. These students dedicate countless hours practicing on the field, planning philanthropy events, or passing student legislation so that we might have a better life as students. These students are the men and women who have time and time again proven to be upstanding leaders in their communities.
Ryan Stoin Smithville, Mo. junior
Papers unable to distinguish news
It seems the "Kansan" is infected with the same problem plaguing other forms of media: The inability to distinguish between news and advertising. Ann Premer's story on Page 3 of Tuesday's paper was clearly the latter. A bicycle shop changing locations is hardly newsworthy in any sense. If you're going to offer bike shops free promotions, how about extending the favors to everyone else? I've got some pet topics that could use 24-square inches of free coverage.
Randall Ubrich Baldwin City graduate student
Landlord editorial written one-sided
In response to Eryl Cochran's editorial, "Landlords putting the fix on tenants." I found some truth to the article, but I didn't see any attempt by Cochran to give landlords a fair say in how or why they manage their walk-throughs the way they do.
First off, Cochran states that landlords wish to do all their walk-throughs in one day. This assessment is wrong. Lawrence's rental market is a seasonal market, thus an estimated 80 percent of leases end on July 31, with new ones beginning Aug. 1. Landlords, like any other business person, must adjust to this market by trying to do as many walk-throughs as possible on July 31 and Aug. 1, in an attempt to accommodate students who move from across town.
True, a burned-out light bulb does not cost $10. But because a landlord owns so many rental units and has to conduct numerous walkthroughs on July 31 and Aug. 1, a landlord doesn't have the time to clean up and fix the units that need to be worked on. To help them out, many landlords hire maintenance to help them with most of the work, be it fixing a light bulb or repairing a toilet. Some maintenance charge $20-30 per hour, which can lead a 10 minute job to replace a light bulb into the expensive $10 light bulb you encountered.
Remember that when you deal with a two-sided issue, both sides will have good points and it is important to recognize both sides.
Anthony Wagner Omaha, Neb., senior
1
POW editorial overlooks facts
A recent editorial on POW/MIA Recognition Week uncritically quotes Kent Gragg stating that there, "are still 2,145 POWs who nobody knows anything about." This statement accuses Vietnam of presently holding 2,145 U.S. prisoners, and is clearly wrong.
According to the Department of Defense, in 1990 there were no POWs and 1,190 MIAs, according to the 1990 POW-MIA Fact Book. Also, according to this source, "reviews of each loss incident by the parent service led to a presumptive finding of death in each case except one." The exception was a symbolic POW who has since been declared Killed in Action. There were only eight cases listed in which there was "evidence of capture," and four of these are known to have died in captivity. It is very likely that there are no POWs, although this can never be proven.
The editorial rightly suggests that not enough attention is given to the war. But there are many issues other than the fact of U.S. MIAs (and 300,000 Vietnamese MIAs). These include the devastation of three countries, the deaths of several millions people and injury to millions more, and the continuing effects of Agent Orange on both the Vietnamese and U.S. veterans.
Michael Barfield Research Associate Biological Associate