Opinion
Kansan
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Published daily since 1912
Spencer Duncan, *Editor*
Lindsey Henry, *Manager* editor
Andrea Albright, *Manager* editor
Tom Eblen, *General manager*, news adviser
4A
Thursday, August 28,1997
David Keith / KANSAN
Ranting
Downtown ruffians killing fun
The nightlife on the streets of Lawrence would be a lot more pleasant if the kids in pick-up trucks would find something else to do.
If you check out the license plates of the vehicles filled with juveniles in cowboy hats along Massachusetts Street on Friday and Saturday nights, you'll see that these youngsters are mostly from Franklin, Jefferson, and Leavenworth counties. They have come from small, neighboring communities looking for action in the big city.
How sitting in a truck bed on Massachusetts St. passes for weekend entertainment remains a mystery.
It's obvious that these rural folks think they've found a good thing. Too bad it's not such a good thing for downtown.
The kids who spend their weekends parked on Massachusetts St. are not there to spend money. They are there
to hang-out.
Not a problem, in itself. There is no downtown loitering law and everyone has the right to enjoy the lively atmosphere of the place on the weekend.
The problem is these kids end-up ruining the downtown ambience that brought them from Tonganoxie, Ottawa and Lecompton in the first place.
They are loud, confrontational, and generally, a pain. KU students in particular notice the culture clash that occurs between the college crowd and the kids. Although Lawrence Police say there have been no specific complaints or incidents recently, many students can recite stories about heckling, threats, or just plain annoyance from the "truck people."
There may have been no serious incidents yet, but it's only a matter of time before these juvenile confrontations turn into injurious brawls
In the rural kids' defense, it is hard for young people to find something to do in the small Kansas towns near Lawrence. But if these people want to party with the big kids, this they need to grow-up and get their kicks from something besides calling people names.
And if they can't grow up, Lawrence Police need to treat these weekend visitors like the kids that they are. The curfew in Lawrence on Friday and Saturday for people under 18 is 12:30 a.m. When an officer discovers a juvenile out after this time the police procedure is to call the child's parents and have them come get their kid at the station.
Maybe if mom and dad had to get out of bed and drive in from Ottawa a few times, these kids would begin to realize that Lawrence was not the place to be.
Elizabeth Musser for the editorial board
Recycling effort will lessen anger
In the wake of the deal Coca-Cola made with the University, administrators must now deal with greater repercussions than the student bitterness about being left out of the decision making process.
The biggest problem concerns the thousands of plastic Coke bottles littering campus. The solution is to form a more comprehensive recycling program which would process plastic bottles. Administrators insist that they are working out the kinks with Coca-Cola in a proposal to create a better campus-wide recycling program. The University needs to bolster its recycling efforts and if Coca-Cola can help with the cost, then student bitterness may start to wane.
Many students feel that with the Coca-Cola deal, the University abandoned recycling as a top priority. Students do not see the promised recycling bins. They see trash cans throughout campus overflowing with plastic bottles.
However, Tom Hutton, director of University Relations, insists that recycling is not taking a back burner. He maintains that the administration has wanted to implement a more efficient and comprehensive recycling program, but financial constraints hampered the endeavor. With the financial aid of Coca-Cola, Hutton contends, the University can provide upgrades to the recycling program.
Many students are against plastic Coca-Cola bottles because they are difficult to recycle. But Hutton said that with the financial support of Coca-Cola, this concern can be overcome.
In addition, plastic recycling has been shown to be effective at some of the University's peer schools such as Missouri and Illinois.
Time will tell if the University can establish a successful recycling program that can compete with its peer schools. There are many concerns about the recycling of plastic, and many of these concerns are financially based. Part of the deal between the University and Coca-Cola is that they will help the University strengthen its recycling efforts. If this happens, students may not mind seeing all of their drinks always Coca-Cola.
Kansan staff
Nick Zaller for the editorial board
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
Aerica Veazey ... News clerk
News editors
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
Broadon your mind: Today's quote
"I believe that from us cannot emerge creatures more lucid or more noble than our best moments."
—Jorge Jorge Borges, as translated by James E. Irbv
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 letter 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 generic questions or comments, e-mail the page staff (opinion@kansan.com) or call 864-4810.
Raving
Summer of indentured servitude, financial loss
I was looking for a job that required no thought and even less physical labor. CBS was looking for an employee with ambition, intelligence and the willingness
Jeff Mudrick
opinion@kansan.com
to perform mindless tasks and serve as the standard to which all other employees could point and say, "At least I'm more significant than him."
"Normally," they told me, "we hire illegal immigrants for this kind of work and pay them less than minimum wage. But since you're willing to work for free, and it's legal, you're hired. Now go get me some coffee."
Thus began my eight-
week session of serfdom and financial struggle, formally known as an unpaid summer internship.
For those unfamiliar with the term, an unpaid internship is basically the same as a job — except without the pay, the benefits, the respect and the recognition.
To a paid employee, an intern ranks about two steps below nail fungus on the respectability scale. Sure, that employee may do the same work, but he or she does it without the intern's exaggerated enthusiasm, acknowledging the lowliness of the job. Meanwhile, the intern makes copies, runs errands and serves as the butt of office jokes, with a constant smile and a nonexistent paycheck.
Of course, I exaggerate when I say unpaid. I'll actually have to pay between $60 and $300 to receive college credit. My employer insisted I receive credit for the more than 350 hours of work. Otherwise, it would be like they were taking advantage of me.
But I knew what I was getting into and never complained on the job.
Every Thursday, I got a free lunch, and that was all the motivation I needed. Not since the grade school days of $1.50 per
The only non-edible compensation I received were occasional freebie books and CDs, which I had hoped to sell later for profit. Unfortunately, they wouldn't fit in my suitcase, and I spent more to ship them home than I could ever hope to make from their sale.
week allowances had my love of food made me such an easy target for cheap-labor seekers. Back then, it was a candy bar or ice cream. This summer, it was a stale turkey sandwich, a bag of chips and a warm soda.
In short, my internship has left me with a bad attitude, a deflated bank account and two large boxes of self-help books and new-age music.
Of course, free food doesn't pay the bills and I was forced into a situation where stealing office supplies was no longer just a bad habit, but a necessary means of support. Erasable pens, company stationery and "white out" were hot items, but at 15 cents a pop, barely enough to cover transportation.
On the positive side, I was able to spend my summer being lazy and unproductive without my parents nagging me to get a job. Sure, the work was unglamorous, but it was easy and infrequent.
At first, that bothered me. After all, I didn't apply for the internship just to sit in a conference room and read newspapers five hours a day. I wanted to be challenged. I wanted to be put to work.
However, I soon grew to appreciate the sedentary nature of my job and when the work requests began coming in, I was not only irritated, but offended that anyone would try to impose on my reading time.
So, for those considering an unpaid internship next summer, I suggest you consider all the options, speak with an advisor or trusted elder and take the job at Burger King. It pays, the lunches are free every day and you get a uniform and name tag.
Mudrick is a Topeka junior in biology
Heed this advice: Take time to look for the sign
Anna Attkisson
oinning@gearson.com
E everything you ever needed to know about college has been kept from you. For the past 18 plus years your parents, friends, older siblings, teachers and
guidance counselors conspired to keep the horrors of campus life from you. They all neglected to tell you that school can kill, or at the least cause side effects that are deadly to the mind and/or body.
There will be a test. It is called graduation.
These effects can be felt from the evils of caffeine addiction, culture shock, laziness, obesity, sleep deprivation, your neighbor's own version of noise pollution, the Spice Girls, your roommate's flying alarm clock, chin splints, stress migraines, among other things that are illegal or obscene and you will just have to fend for yourself on those.
*Take a library tour. You will get lost if you do not heed my advice. Then you will have to torture me with your inevitable introduction at the circulation desk, "Hi! I've never been here before and I have no
These are just a few things that were kept from you. There are other things you should know that I have learned from my existence. Hopefully, some of you already know these:
I am talking about things more damaging and less fun than the inevitable side effects of lung cancer and liver damage. The list is long, and vital to your well-being. So, pay attention.
*Even if you see someone in the library that does not mean that they can read. Much like the fact that even if someone has a drivers license, that does not mean that they know how to drive.
After working in the library for two years, I can tell you that signs mean nothing. They might as well have been written in gibberish for all that people read them
All these things, and more you can learn for yourself at the beautiful University of Kansas. I hope to learn more fun and exciting ways of self-destruction. Maybe we can learn together. If you are a returning student, welcome back. Didn't you miss all this fun?
*Machine food can be an effective, if not cheap form of nutrition for overworked, underpaid, poverty stricken students. I have come to believe that there is an addictive ingredient in those chocolate-chocolate chip cookies that keep you coming back for more. Call it my version of a breakfast for champions.
Attkisson is a Manhattan junior in the liberal arts and sciences.
- Algebra 101 sucks. The math department really is out to get you.
- Failing to lock your dorm-room, scholarship hall room or bedroom door can result in drunks who you don't want to know mistake your trash can for the john. Even Mr. Clean is unequipped to tackle that smell.
- You can always go home again, and you probably will. You just may not want to stay there.
-Despite the fact that you may see Chancellor Robert Hemenway on the street does not make him one of us. In fact, I am not totally sure that the man I have seen on campus is not just a hologram, and much like the "Great Oz", we should pay no attention to the man behind the curtain that is the chancellor's house.
*Everyone you meet is somehow connected in an eerie way that you wish you didn't know about. They may not have directly met, but somebody has probably slept with your brother's roommate's cousin that lives in Beloit or something like that.*
- People who park their flat-bed trucks on Massachusetts St. on Saturday nights, and drink beer while sitting in the back and yelling at passing cars are not your friends.
Feedback
Plea for less glossy inserts
To the advertising department of the "Kansan": Please, no more glossy inserts in the paper.
As I walked back from a morning class today, the lawn in front of Fraser was a sea of glossy, nonrecyclable Suter Tarnet ads.
Anthony Nicholson Overland Park junior
100 percent recyclable.
Obviously, these ads represent a great deal of revenue for the "Kansan," but monetary concerns cannot be placed before the greater concerns of the campus community. The UDK needs to be
No solicitation?
Forget about it
What part of no does the University of Kansas not understand? When I see the No Solicitation Beyond This Point sign, I let out a sigh of relief. No more people hassling me. But, that was not what happened the first
week of class in front of the Union. I was met with a big, obnoxious, environmentally unfriendly "bigloo" sponsored by the infamous Coca-Cola Corporation.
The University of Coke, oh, I mean Kansas, has a right and responsibility to its students and faculty to abide by its own rules. When I see the No Solicitation Beyond This Point Sign, I want to sigh in relief.
Jon Keltner
Wichita senior