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Kansan
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4A
Friday, November 20,1998
Editorials
KU CLAS made right decision to offer students minor degrees
Students at the University of Kansas have had very little flexibility in the area of minor degrees. If they wanted to pursue a field in addition to their declared major, they could either make it an "emphasis" or become a double-major. For most students, neither of these options were preferred.
An emphasis required almost as many classes as a major, and many students would not be able to afford to take the extra classes — and sometimes semesters — needed for a double-major.
The University of Kansas was the only Big 12 school that did not offer minors. Many students have been frustrated with this policy, and rightly so. A student may have
The University of Kansas was the only Big 12 school that didn't offer minors.
taken foreign-language courses up to the most advanced level, yet this would not be apparent if he or she is majoring in business. If a student were taking such courses at a school that offered a minor, then the student would appear more well-rounded through this certification.
A minor not only helps when the student is in search of employment but also during the time the student studies at the University. The existence of minors allows a student to
pursue an interest in addition to his or her chosen major. These additional courses make for a more well-rounded student who is truly educated in all aspects of liberal arts.
Many students have expressed these sentiments to the administration of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Because of this interest, the college has added minors to its curriculum. It will meet with individual departments to decide on the requirements.
If the introduction of minors at the University of Kansas happens by the year 2000, many students currently in the the college will benefit. An emphasis becomes truly emphasized when it is labeled a minor on a diploma.
Kathryn Jensen for the editorial board
Holiday season commences too early
It's already beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Supermarkets, malls and every place in between are gearing up for the marketing bonanza known as "the holidays." Stores are decorating with tinsel and trees, toys are everywhere, and carols are being played in shopping centers.
Even Christmas music is being played by the bells of the Campanile. One might be fooled into thinking that the highest of all holy commercial holidays was right around the corner.
It isn't. It isn't even Thanksgiving yet, and already consumers are being inundated with messages about Christmas. The Lawrence Journal-World published its annual
People should abide by the unofficial rule to start the holidays after Thanksgiving.
gift-giving guide a 10 days before Thanksgiving. In fact, the full-court advertising press has been in effect since shortly before Halloween.
This sort of over-commercialization of the winter holidays is something just short of sacrilege and ought to be stopped. For many years, it was an American tradition to "officially" start the Christmas season on Thanksgiving Day. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which marks Santa's arrival at Macy's Department Store in New
York, is one of the last remaining vesties of this tradition.
The tradition ought to be renewed as quickly as possible. Christmas and Hanukkah deserve more than ruthless exploitation for financial gain.
When consumers can see Santa Claus, electric Menorahs and tasteless plastic manger scenes for nearly three months out of 12, the novelty and wonder of this time of year are completely lost. The holidays are cheapened, and everyone loses.
Although we live in a high-speed era of instant gratification, there are some things that are just worth waiting for. The holiday season is one of them. Remember, just 37 more shopping days until Christmas!
Jennifer Roush for the editorial board
Kansan staff
Ann Premer ... Editorial
Tim Harrington ... Associate Editorial
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Perspective
Life's work more valuable than just making a living
Whenever I am asked, "What do you intend to do after you graduate?" and I answer, "I intend to be a writer." I am inevitably asked again, "Just a writer? Yes, but what do you intend to do for a living?"
We are living in a particularly challenging time. Economic considerations seem to rule all aspects of our lives. As a result, we approach education as a business venture, an investment that is supposed to yield the greatest financial return possible. We put a dollar sign on everything and evaluate the effectiveness of education on the basis of how many dollars people can
make once they are on the other side of the academic assembly line.
I am not comfortable with this way of thinking about education. If my goal in life were only to make money, I would not have come to the University of Kansas. I already was making money before I decided to come here. I came because I had acquired much experience in life, but that experience was fragmented. I needed time and a place to integrate my life experience into a unified whole that would make me a better human being and a better helper of all the other beings with whom I share the planet.
Service to humanity is the purpose of my life and training for the broadest service possible is the reason why I am in school. When I graduate, I want to serve humanity by working as a writer. As for the money, I am not really concerned about it. I have found out that having money does not make my heart beat; not having it does not stop my heart. I have learned that service is the cause and money its natural effect. If I serve people, money will follow. And if I serve a lot of people, a lot of money will follow. So, I have settled this issue.
Cooperating: The world is becoming more and more interconnected and interdependent. There is a great need for people of good will who can help us build bridges where we have so far built walls.
Many observers of the world situation say that we are now living in a period of transition between the Old Age of the 20th century and the New Age of the 21st century and beyond. Everywhere we look, there is change. Ideas, technologies, institutions, people, groups, communities, countries and the whole planet are changing. Sometimes the change is so swift that all we can see is chaos. There seems to be a tug-of-war among globalization and fragmentation, mergers, economic boom and poverty, ecological consciousness and outright environmental abuse, peace and war; wonderful health-care systems and people who die
because they cannot even afford an aspirin. For a great part of humanity, the despair is real, and the impasse frightening.
That is where my role as writer comes in. As we enter the new millennium, we need a group of people who are willing to dedicate their lives to serving humanity as a whole, healing the old wounds, trying out more constructive attitudes and approaches to life, and thus helping to usher in a truly New Age for our planet. Writer Alice Bailey calls this group "The New Group of World Servers," and Marilyn Ferguson calls it "The Aquarian Conspiracy" — a conspiracy of service and love. The members of this group will be engaged in the following activities:
Educating: Public opinion needs to be educated about the new principles that are needed for individual and global transformation.
- Inspiring: Without the vision that inspires, the people perish. Today, more than ever before, we need dreamers who will generate visions that will help us dream and motivate us to work hard to make those dreams come true.
Interpreting; Today, the best of our traditional experts have trouble explaining what is happening in the world. Perceptive people able to untangle the mess are sorely needed.
Organization: There are millions of people of good will in every country, but many of them don't even know it, so they remain inactive. If these people can be discovered, trained for service and put to work on behalf of humanity, our planet will be a transformed place.
Leading: All over the world, there are innumerable needs crying to be met. But for lack of leadership, they are not even recognized. Insightful, courageous and ethical leaders who can help us see these needs and respond to them, and who can lead us in the constructive ways of human interactions are badly needed.
Whether we choose to work as educators, interpreters, inspirers, cooperators, organizers, or leaders, we will never be out of work and therefore never out of money.
So, what do I intend to do for a living after I graduate? Well, there is no doubt about it: I intend to be a writer and exercise many of the functions I have discussed above. And if I starve to death because I am "just a writer," at least I will rest in peace, knowing that I have served humanity with the only gift life has given me; the gift of words.
Phhnsu is a Lawrence graduate student in journalism.
Future of Social Security threatened by borrowing
Congress and the President have duped the American public again. For the past six years, politicians and elected officials have made reducing the budget deficit their No.1 priority.
They attached such importance to it because the American people felt reducing our national debt was important. And rightly so — the effects of a large national debt are significant. The federal government already spends a huge portion of the budget just to pay the interest on the debt. Having billions of dollars tied up financing the national debt limits the
Tim Burger
Guest Columns
amount of money banks have to lend to individuals, businesses, etc. Politicians were making some progress toward balancing the budget.
However, this year that all changed. With just a bit of political sleight-of-hand, congressional leaders and the president made the budget deficit disappear. A good economy has lessened the obligations on government and raised tax revenues temporarily, creating what our elected officials are calling a budget surplus. Unfortunately, no matter how many times our leaders say there is a surplus, in reality, the federal debt will increase this year.
They create a surplus out of a debt by borrowing $99 billion from the Social Security trust fund and replacing that money with nonmarketable Treasury securities.
Because of a good economy and low unemployment a lot of people are paying money into the Social Security system. However, in just a few years the baby boomers will begin retiring. By the middle of next century, the majority of the baby boom generation will be taking money from the Social Security system instead of putting money into it.
Because such a large number of people will be retiring, and living much longer lives than their parent's generation did, there will no longer be enough people working to supply money for the Social Security benefits of those taking money out of the system. That money, which has already
That is why we need all those billions of dollars in the Social Security Trust fund. Because we have already spent that money to create a budget surplus, we must find a way to replace those hundreds of billions of dollars. This will force Congress to raise payroll taxes to astronomically high levels in the future or dramatically reduce Social Security benefits.
Reducing benefits is not a politically feasible option. The burden falls on the shoulders of future workers, today's students. At the time when most of us should be accumulating wealth and beginning to do things such as buy homes and begin to save for our children's education, we will be saddled with huge taxes to pay for our parents Social Security.
been spent to create our surplus, is supposed to pay for our parents' retirement and will have to be repaid when they retire.
Republican future Speaker of the House, Bob Livingstone, has recommended that we quit raiding the Social Security trust fund. This would help preserve Social Security for when the baby boomers retire and lessen the burden on future taxpayers.
The debate about how to spend the "surplus" is nonsense. The fact is our representatives are debating how to waste money they don't really have in the first place. Although it would be nice to spend our "surplus" on new programs, we should remember that our national debt is still $5.4 trillion. Instead of thinking up new ways to spend imaginary money, we should focus on how to begin to pay off our national debt and save Social Security.
Simply returning the unsent portion of the Social Security trust fund will not save Social Security. We have to get Congress' hands off it in the first place. Ending this practice would also force our elected leaders to take an honest look at balancing the budget with fewer tricks.
The bottom line is that balancing the budget hurts. It's hard and will cost us some luxuries that we would like to keep. However, if we don't make some small sacrifices now we will have to make some huge sacrifices in a few years, and no amounts of promises and rosy numbers can change that.
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Burger is a Lenexa junior in political science.