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
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Sarah Scherwinki, Business manager
Brian Paul, Retail sales manager
Dan Simon, Sales and marketing adviser
Justin Knapp, Technology coordinator
Thursday, August 21, 1997
Kevin T. Frost / KANSAN
Ranting
Like it or not, always Coca-Cola
There's no way around it. If you're thirsty between classes for a Diet Pepsi, Mountain Dew, or Dr Pepper, you're out of luck. Starting this year, the University of Kansas enters an exclusive-distribution contract with Coca-Cola through 2007.
The deal means a $21 million windfall for the University, one-third of which comes from an up-front payment in September. Another third is in the form of event sponsorship which many companies provide without an exclusivity contract. Sponsoring an event could most accurately be likened to buying advertisements the sponsor gets its logo on T-shirts, posters, and other prominent places.
The last $7 million in the estimated income from the contract comes from commissions on sales, interest earned on the initial $7 million payment, and money paid by Coke for KU's vending machines. These revenues, like the
sponsorship, can just as easily be earned without the exclusivity contract. Beverage machine operators receive money from the soft drinks they sell sometimes in the form of commissions, and sometimes simply in the form of profits from sales. The interest on the $7 million occurs only if the University doesn't immediately spend the money, and comes from the financial institution where the money is kept, not from Coca-Cola.
Quick math reveals that the contract really has only one benefit the initial $7 million payment. The drawbacks are numerous. The first is damage done to the University's image: What is KU all about? Signing a deal like this without so much as informing students beforehand signals a priority shift. Is KU dealing behind students' backs to make money?
Second, students end up paying more. Many of the school's vending
machines will dispense 20 ounces of cola for 85 cents instead of 12 ounces for 50 cents. While the per-ounce charge is roughly the same, the cost is higher because many students don't want 20 ounces of cola. That means students are wasting 40 percent of their soda and thus 40 percent of their money.
Finally, the plan could end up costing the University money. Students sick of paying 85 cents or longing for a Pepsi-manufactured soft drink, will buy their drinks elsewhere or go without. A student may be thirsty enough to drop two quarters in a machine, but not patched enough to break a dollar bill.
It's apparent that this plan hasn't been thought through. Things like that tend to happen when students are left out of major decisions that affect them.
Andy Rohrback for the editorial board
Downtown becoming 'anytown'
The view from the Free State Brewery lately looks like a view from a food court at the mall.
As if the Gap that opened last fall at Seventh and Massachusetts Streets was not enough, the new Abercrombie & Fitch that recently opened next door serves as one more reminder that corporate America is slowly infiltrating Downtown Lawrence.
These stores are not the only culprits. With a Bagel & Bagel at the South end of Massachusetts Street and a Border's Bookstore under construction at 700 New Hampshire St., Lawrence's quaint shopping district is quickly turning into Anvintage U.S.A.
Downtown Lawrence is a fun place to visit because many of the shops are unique, independently-owned businesses filled with items not found at cookie-cutter malls.
People will not come from Topeka or Kansas City to shop in Lawrence if they can find the same thing at their local mall.
Not only do corporate businesses offer little unique choices, the majority of the money spent at these franchises goes straight to corporate headquarters. Local business owners spend their profits locally. Obviously, a growing town like Lawrence cannot expect to keep out all corporately-owned businesses. In fact, a few nationally known stores may help draw people downtown, which helps all merchants. And to their credit, the stores that have come to Lawrence have made an honest effort to preserve
the architecture that makes downtown distinctive.
The key to keeping downtown healthy is balance. Lawrence residents favor a thriving downtown as opposed to a cornfield mall. But if corporate businesses takeover downtown Lawrence, the citizens are no longer in charge. If the corporations decide that they can make a bigger profit by leaving the higher-rent spaces of downtown and moving to a mall somewhere west of town, they will have a mall built there. They won't think twice about leaving downtown vacant.
Those who don't want to see downtown turn into a ghost town should keep the local economy alive by shopping at locally-owned businesses.
Kansan staff
Elizabeth Musser for the editorial board
News editors
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Broadon pour mind: Todav's auote
"I don't drink to get drunk. I drink because I'm done with my other drink," Mike, an anonymous source in an excessive drinking story which appeared in Monday's Kansan -cost 50 and 60 cents. Chancellor Robert Hemenway, could you please explain how we are better off?
**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.
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Guest columns: Should be double-
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All letter and guest columns should be submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stuaffer-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.
Raving
KU cashes in, whether you're on or off the bus
Forget "Grab an Ice Cold Coke." The new motto on every soda vending machine should be, "When you can.
Coca-Cola bought up the campus by becoming its sole soft-drink dealer.
The $21 million payoff the University took has proven to be a ripoff for students.
Spencer Duncan
editor@kansan.com
No one should pay 85 cents for 20 ounces of a drink that is worse than Pepsi. The University has tried to convince everyone that they are getting a good deal by paying 85 cents for a soda, even though last semester cans
Coca-Cola can afford to pay the University $21 million during the next 10 years because students and staff will be stupid enough to pay the monopoly prices. Coke is just going to take our money and give it right back to the University.
Chancellor Bob said some of the money, which includes a $7 million payment up front, will go to the athletic department. The rest of the cash is supposed to go to scholarships. We'll see.
It will be interesting to discover what actually happens to the money.
But why isn't the money going toward something everyone can use? How about a new gymnasium or a child care center? Why not use the money to build a tutoring center or to upgrade technology?
Wasn't Chancellor Bob recently complaining that there wasn't enough money sitting around to improve campus technology?
It's not that scholarships and athletics aren't important, but a scholarship only benefits the person who gets it. Using the money for campus-wide projects would benefit everyone.
What the University has left us with is no options. It is telling us that we have to pay more money to get a drink so that the University can receive money most of us will never see.
The University should not be allowed to get away with it. This is the perfect chance for the students and staff at the University to fight back.
Don't buy the Coke on campus. Don't purchase drinks at a football game, don't get sodas at the Unions and quit dropping change into the vending machines.
Make the University spend the money on something we all can use. Make them show us some respect. If we all have to pay for the drink, then we should all get to benefit from the deal.
Until that happens, Chancellor Bob and Coke don't deserve our money. In other news:
Talk about getting screwed by the University, how about the cost increase in parking permits. Everyone, including faculty, have been forced to pay more, but students have taken the biggest hit.
Last year a yellow permit, which is sold to students, cost $53. This year yellow permits jumped to $75. In the words of my roommate,
"What the hell??!"
If the increase meant hundreds of new spaces would open up on campus, few would care about the increase. But that isn't happening.
The extra $23 is buying 193 new spaces on Daisy Hill and a new lot at Jayhawker Towers. And Parking Director Don Kearns has assured everyone that new street lines will be painted everywhere.
While this is better than nothing, the truth is most students don't park at Jayhawker Towers or on Daisy Hill unless they live there. People want parking behind the computer center and near the Unions. Hey, parking department, if you aren't going to put new spaces in those places, that's fine. Just don't charge us high prices for spaces that most of us will never use.
Speaking of the parking department, what genius came up with the idea of making the parking permit renewal stickers the color purple.
Wasn't there anyone smart enough to stand up and say, "Pardon me, purple is the color of our most hated rival. I think this is a bad idea."
It's a small thing, but I am sure the people at K-State would be amused to discover that thanks to our parking department everyone at KU who bought a parking permit now has something purple in their car.
Scott Kaiser, KU on Wheels Transportation Coordinator, is really proud of the bus. Kaiser has been on the front page of newspapers talking about how cool it is that we have a blue bus, instead of that lime-green color that has been around for 40 years.
Speaking of colors, isn't it nice that the campus now has a newly painted blue bus.
But folks, we're talking about one bus. Not two or three or four, but one. There are more than 20 buses. Who cares about one blue bus?
If they want to really improve the busses, find a way to get rid of that thick black smoke that comes out of the back. Now that would be something to be proud of.
Painting half the busses have been impressive, but painting just one makes it obvious that the bus system is broke and can't afford any paint for the rest of the fleet.
On top of everything, I'm a little worried about this year's freshman class. The other day I heard one of them say, "Those students senators sound like they work really hard."
Duncan is an Topeka senior in journalism and is the editor of the Kansan.
At some point in this semester, the words on this page may piss you off. They may offend you. They may engage you. With a little luck, they may even amuse you.
As co-editor of this page, any reaction I receive from you, whether it be anger or elation, is expected and will be respected.
All you'll need to know about the editorial page
This is the one page in a newspaper that truly belongs to you. This space, if it does its job, provides a place for public debate on issues affecting you and the University community. This space will provide a
Bradley
Brooks
brooks@tansan.com
chance for you or your group's opinions to be heard.
Essentially, I want this page to be a well-edited — please let there be no errors in this column — forum for anyone to air a solidly-constructed opinion, and in doing so expose another angle or argument to an issue.
But as I sat down to write this introductory column, it occurred to me that I've rarely seen an explanation appear in the Kansan for how — or why— certain things are done on the editorial page. Asking you to write letters or guest columns without prior knowledge of how we process them is unfair. So, here is your guide to the workings of this page:
What you are reading is a column. Its content and style is initially conceived by a single writer. That person then submits the column to one of the two editors on the page. Said column is then read by an editor and the writer together, and any problems in content or style are worked out. The column then goes through a copy editor and finally makes its way to your hands.
- To the left of this column are editorials.
- The stance of an editorial — while written
Do you want to share your thoughts on why the student body at the University is so racially segregated in social settings? (Look around at your favorite bar.) Write a guest column.
Tired of paying for ineffective academic programs? (See the Spanish department. Or, see how many KU students are enrolled in Johnson County Community College's Spanish program—more than 90 percent in my class at JCCC last Spring.) Write a letter to the editor.
Ideally, I want this page to be an ongoing conversation about what affects you and your fellow students, faculty and staff.
This semester we have a group of writers that not only represent a broad spectrum of thought, but can effectively communicate those ideas to you in written form. The opinions of a past student-body president to the acutely environmentally aware to advocates of gay-rights will be seen here. Hell, we may even have a nihilist or two.
by a single writer — is decided upon by a group of approximately 12 people who belong to the editorial board. In bi-weekly meetings, this group of people discuss issues facing the KU community and take a vote as to what side of the issue an editorial
which represents the opinion of the paper should be written. It is then written by a member of the board and goes through the same editing process as a column does.
An editorial cartoon is created by one of our staff cartoonists (God knows I can't draw the damn things) to either accompany an editorial or to stand on its opinionated own.
Throw in any letters we receive from you—which may be edited for style and length—and you have an editorial page.
We have worked, and will continue working, to give you what an editorial page should be: an open marketplace of ideas.
You only have to buy the ones you choose.
Brooks is a Hill City senior in journalism and an editorial page editor.