Opinion
Kansan
Published daily since 1912
Jodie Chester, Editor
Gerry Doyle, Managing editor
Ryan Koerner, Managing editor
Tom Eblen. General manager. news adviser
Marc Harrell, *Business manager*
Jamel Holm, *Retail sales manager*
Dan Simon, *Sales and marketing adviser*
in Just Knapp, *Technology coordinator*
Wednesday, December 2, 1998
Editorials
The University should lift its ban on alcohol sales at the Jaybowl
The University certainly had the best of intentions in mind when it banned the sale of alcohol from the Kansas Union, but in its quest to minimize alcohol abuse, this action is ineffective.
The University should lift the ban on union alcohol sales, which was imposed Nov. 9. First, the Union was never a popular watering hole among students, especially not the underage students that the University and city of Lawrence's alcohol task force wish to deter from drinking. Second, the amount of alcohol being sold at the Union, which limited itself to beer sales in the Jaybowl, was minuscule compared to that of the bars on which the task force should be focusing.
Binge-drinking problem will not be solved by banning beer at the bowling alley.
On the contrary, the Jaybowl was one of the most reliable drinking establishments in Lawrence at carding its customers.
The University's decision also disregarded the good faith that the Union had shown regarding alcohol sales. When Student Union Activities began promoting all-ages concerts in the Jaybowl last fall, the Union stopped its beer sales an hour before the shows began. Underage students and other minors that came to enjoy the shows were limited to pop and water as refreshments.
There is no advantage gained to banning alcohol sales in the Union, but there are negative ramifications. The Jaybowl, as its name suggests, is a bowling alley. Many bowlers enjoy drinking a beer or two during a game. Without beer available, a social aspect of bowling may be lost, making patrons less inclined to bowl in the Union any longer.
Jaybowl revenues may suffer as a result of the University's unnecessary intervention. The problem of underage drinking, however, will continue on untouched. The University meant well when it made this policy, but it should now continue its good intentions by rescinding it.
Ronnie Wachter for the editorial board
Library should offer options to copy cards
Accessing library copy machines is a routine part of academic life for most students. Therefore, copying required texts and research materials should be as efficient as possible.
Paying for a piece of white plastic with a magnetic strip is inconvenient and costly for a majority of students who need only make a few copies.
The biggest problem making copies at Watson Library is only one micro-film machine takes coins or dollars. Students should not be expected to have to pay an extra $1 for a copy card or budget their time around the availability of a single micro-film machine.
If students want and need to use cash to pay for copies, they should
Students must buy a $1 card to make copies on all but one micro-film machines.
have the option to do so.
If this one machine is not available for use, students researching are in a jam.
Starting in January students will have the option to use KUIDs as well as copy cards to purchase copies on most copy machines, but the number of cash accessible copy machines is expected to decrease, according to Kent Miller, library facilities management.
sible machines are valued and needed. Some students prefer paying with cash rather than using plastic cards.
On campus, the price is 7 cents a copy for copies purchased with a copy card or a KUID and 10 cents for those paid with coins and bills at copy machines. The price difference is supposed to pay for counting coins used to purchase copies.
By using coin machines, students have demonstrated that cash access-
However, all copies for micro film are 10 cents, which does not alleviate the cost of the cov card.
The library should either offer more micro-film machines that accept coins or lower the price to 7 cents a copy to make buying a copy card worthwhile to micro film users.
Kansan staff
Kris Olsen for the editorial board
Ann Premer . . . Editorial
Tim Harrington . . . Associate Editorial
Aaron Marvin . . . News
Gwen Olson . . . News
Aaron Knopf . . . Online
Matt Friedrichs . . Sports
Kevin Wilson . . . Associate sports
Marc Sheforgen . . Campus
Laura Roddy . . Campus
Lindsey Henry . Features
Bryan Volk . Association features
Roger Nomer . Photo
Corie Waters . Photo
Angie Kuhn . Design, graphics
Melissa Ngo . Wire
Sara Anderson . Special sections
Laura Veazey . news clerk
News editors
Stacia Williams ... Assistant retail
Brandi Byram ... Campus
Micah Kafitz ... Regional
Ryan Farmer ... National
Matt York ... Marketing
Stephanie Krause .. Production
Matt Thomas .. Production
Traci Meisenheimer .. Creative
Tenley Lane .. Classified
Sara Cropper .. Zone
Nicole Farrell .. Zone
Jon Schlitt .. Zone
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Matt Lopez .. Zone
Brian Allers .. PR/Intern manager
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Broadon your mind: Today's quote
How to submit letters and guest columns
"Fear always springs from ignorance." — Emerson
Letterers: 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 Stuaffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Ann Premer (premer@kansan.com) or Tim Harrington (tharrington@kansan.com) at 846-4810. If you have general questions or comments, email the page staff (opinion@kansan.com) or call 864-4810.
Cost of education rises while federal aid shrinks
Perspective
always knew a college education would be costly.
1 It was part of the territory. Someone said the word "college," and as a high school student of modest means, I
Clay McCuistion
oincoln @ kansas.com
Salvation was always close, though. After all, I was somewhat intelligent and didn't universities want bright people? Our helpful government would always be close by, willing to give me a grant or loan.
dent of modest means,
automatically thought
"more money than I have."
Yeah. right.
I'm lucky, because I'm scraping by financially. A lot of other students aren't. And the government isn't.
helping. According to an article in the Kansan on Nov. 19, Pell grants — free money from Washington — now cover only 33 percent of the average KU tuition. In 1976, Pell grants covered 72 percent of a public education.
In the last 20 years, inflation taken into account. Pell grant amounts have fallen by 23 percent. College costs have risen 49 percent. Family incomes have only risen 10 percent.
Forget what I said about a helpful government.
It's a cruel irony of the '90s that as college education became more important than ever in securing a decent job, the same education grew ridiculously expensive. Yet again, the needs of the middle class and low-income people are being swept aside by the all-important, all-powerful dollar.
I understand that running a university takes serious cash. I do not debate the necessity of the charges piled upon students. Every year an institution of higher learning is expected to provide more and more services. It can't be free.
But where is the government in this picture? How could legislators push aside the need of generations of young people to be educated for careers? How can this ever be characterized as needless, wasteful spending?
College cannot become a refuge for only the financially gifted. When the message is sent that only rich students succeed at state universities, there is a serious problem. Education is supposed to be the great equalizer, uniting all in a quest for knowledge. If education becomes the great divider, it is time to make far-reaching changes.
Money for college from Uncle Sam is not a liberal or conservative issue. It may have been at one time — when students could get $ \varrho $
I'm no economist. I'm sure there are reasons why higher universities have become harder to afford. I'm sure there are good, sensible reasons. But there are good, sensible reasons why this trend toward academic and financial elitism must be stopped.
Thousands upon thousands of high school seniors want high quality college instruction and can't afford it. Thousands upon thousands of current college students may have to leave school because they can't afford it.
Loans are helpful but can burden a graduate for years. Universities provide money,but it is often hard to get and amounts are slowly decreasing.
If Pell grants diminish and are eventually cut from the national budget, what's to keep student loans from disappearing, or University scholarships or private money or any number of sources that have been put in place to help young people get the education they need?
If it were only the Pell program that was in trouble, though, there would be little reason to complain. Students are having trouble across the board.
majority of their expenses paid by a simple grant — but today a college education is undeniably important. It's in everyone's best interests to support programs like Pell grants.
None of these options are attractive. But the alternative—higher education for the rich exclusively—truly is scary.
It is a glaring problem. There is no way to explain it away.
The solution? I wish I could give it to you in a sentence. I wish I had a clue what it was. There must be action — whether it be increased government spending with increased taxes, wheedling more money from private donors, or colleges cutting costs and services.
McCusition is a El Dorado sophomore in journalism.
hate Christmas!
Holiday spirit should be put into daily practice
I'm sure that many of you will be saying, "what a Scrooge," a label I find unfair and offensive. The depiction of Scrooge in Dickens'
A Christmas Carol, is one of a mean, miserly person who objects to anything that doesn't make a profit for him.
I am not a stingy or miserly person, and I feel that the label of "Scrooge" is an intimation of hatefulness or joylessness, which is unfair and inaccurate. I very much enjoy giving people presents, I just resent feeling as if I must give everyone presents on Dec. 25. Frankly, I can't afford Christmas, and
Meredith Toenjes
gonior@kansan.com
don't know too many people who can
What really bugs me about Christmas is the way that people go on about peace and love and giving and brotherhood from the middle of November until about Jan. 2, as if these ideas were seasonal, like snow or asparagus.
These ideas should be remembered and practiced 24-7-365, and anyone unwilling to at least try year-round holiday spirit should not even bother to mouth the words around Christmas.
Every company with a product to sell has, by the first of November (if not by the end of August), gotten underway an ad campaign that has its product either decked with boughs of holly, being given as a present by one of the lesser-known wise men or being used or craved by Santa or one of his employees.
To temper this crass commercialism, they will put in their ads some mention of money donated, good deeds done on a corporate level, or a very sincere (they mean it, really they do) wish for peace on earth and good will toward all. This is all well and good but it's the right motions for all the wrong reasons.
I'm just tired of hearing people go on and on about the joys of the holiday season when the
only truly lasting happiness the season brings is to the stockholders at Hallmark.
There are kids who — thanks to welfare reform — are now, more than ever, uncertain as to how much food they'll get or whether they'll get shoes this winter or clothes in the summer. There are people who will freeze to death or starve to death in February or March because the urge to donate food or time has dwindled.
And there are people, who we may see every day at school or at work, who have no real family or friends. Suffering from depression brought on by bills and weather and loneliness, they may kill themselves when the people who had them over for Christmas dinner forget them like all the rest.
Like most of us, I don't do as much as I could to contribute to making this a better world in which to live. My suggestion is that we all look at our calendars every month and ask what we've done for someone else this month, for someone less fortunate than ourselves. Have we been a positive influence in the life of a child?
Look at your calendar every week, and ask yourself if you've let the people in your life know how much they mean to you and if you've shown them in some way how you feel.
We should ask ourselves if we've treated other people in a manner that we'd like to be treated ourselves. We should look at our schedule every day, and at the end of the day we should ask ourselves what we've learned that day and how we're able to use that to help and be a positive force tomorrow.
After we've done these things all year round, then and only then, will we be able to look on Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Thanksgiving and New Year's as a time of joy and celebration for all the good we've done through the year, and a time to plan for all the good in the upcoming year. Only then will there truly be hope that "Peace on Earth, Goodwill Toward All" will ever be more than an advertising slogan.
Toenjes is a Kansas City, Kan., senior in history and psychology.
Feedback
Article overlooked Ramadan and Eid
The article in the Kansan title "December Includes Many Holidays" was a good start to educating students about holidays other than Christmas.
However, I was disappointed not to find a mention of the Muslim holidays, Ramadan and Eid.
Ramadan is the month when Muslims refrain from eating and drinking everyday, from sunrise to sunset. This year, Ramadan starts on the Dec. 20 and ends a month later with the beginning of Eid, a three-day feast and celebration during which Muslims visit friends and relatives and exchange gifts.
I hope this letter brings awareness about yet another holiday.
Asmaa Saifan
Overland Park freshman