Opinion
Kansan
Published daily since 1912
Jodie Chester, Editor Marc Harrell, Business manager Gerry Doyle, Managing editor Jamie Holman, Retail sales manager Ryan Koerner, Managing editor Dan Simon, Sales and marketing adviser Tom Eblen, General manager, news adviser Justin Knupp, Technology coordinator
Wednesday, November 11, 1998
Tim McCabe / KANSAN
Tim McLane
Editorial
Jesse Ventura injects much-needed charisma, frankness into politics
In an election with upsets and surprises, no upset was greater than that of Jesse Ventura. A former professional wrestler and Navy SEAL, Ventura won the hotly contested Minnesota gubernatorial race.
In doing so, he defeated a popular moderate Republican, Norm Coleman, and a Democrat, Skip Humphrey, who possesses a name synonymous with Minnesota politics. This upset, although widely derided by political heavyweights, carries a positive message that cannot be denied.
Rather than just being a fluke win by a flamboyant personality, Ventura's win was a triumph for third-party politics. Running on the Reform Party ticket, the party of H. Ross Perot, this race was the culmination of years of growing popular support for third parties.
Recently, voters had complained about the lack of choices in politics, and here came Jesse (formerly) "The
Former WWF superstar won the governor's race in Minnesota.
Body" Ventura as the white knight to save the common man. Ventura proved that voting for a third-party candidate was not a waste of a vote. He refused to settle for a respectable showing; he ran to win.
In winning the governorship, Ventura did something that is unheard of: He won with the support of young people. While "legitimate" candidates tried in earnest to Rock the Vote, all Ventura needed to do was run.
He managed to win by attracting a large number of the electorate that is predictably apathetic to the tedium of professional politics. Any publicity is good publicity, and that is what Jesse Ventura gives politics. Maybe he's not
the most serious-minded legislator,
but for now, he is the most popular.
And who can blame those who voted for Ventura? It is hard to get excited about Norm Coleman or Skip Humphrey, or even Bill Graves and Tom Sawyer. Today, politics is devoid of real charisma. The game of politics encompasses trying not to alienate anyone.
In Ventura, voters got a candidate who was unafraid to anger voters, unafraid to chase a single dream. He told the voters what he honestly thought, and that was the deciding factor. So what if he used to wear tights and body slam people? Ventura infused much needed excitement into an off-year election. Mark Ruud, Marshall, Minn., junior, said he voted for Ventura.
"He's a great representative of Minnesota," he said. "A big, gruff guy, he could be the Vikings mascot."
Or the governor of Minnesota.
Jeff Engstrom for the editorial board
Feedback
The University should reassess ticket prices
Let me preface this critique of the athletic department by saying first that I am a loyal and dedicated Jayhawk fan. As evidence, I drove 13 hours non-stop to Birmingham, Alabama in Mach 1997 only to watch our beloved Jayhawks fall to Arizona in the Sweet 16.
My letter pertains to a much more antiseptic aspect of KU athletics, ticket pricing. More specifically, I will focus on student ticket prices. Having attended several football games this season, I noticed thousands of empty
seats. By contrast, Allen Field House rarely wants for more fans and usually sells out.
Examining the relative prices of basketball and football student tickets, however, an unassuming Jayhawk freshman might think football is the program routinely in the Top 10. Student tickets for football cost $10, while basketball tickets are $3.
The question is why are football tickets priced 333 percent higher than student basketball tickets when the football team struggles to reach .500 and the basketball team is a perennial national championship contender?
four quarters instead of two halves or because they last three hours instead of two? Economists would also be concerned with price elasticities, but the KU ticket office has yet to comprehend such simple economic concepts such as supply and demand. The bottom line here is that the KU ticket office would do well to consider the relative quality of the products it is selling when determining ticket pricing schemes.
Do students pay more for football tickets because football games have
Jud Stanion Pratt graduate student
Kansan staff
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 ... Associate features
Roger Nomer ... Photo
Corie Waters ... Photo
Angle 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
Shannon Curran ... Zone
Matt Lopez ... Zone
Brian Allers ... PR/Intern manager
Advertising managers
Broaden your mind: Today's quote
"Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all." — H.D. Thoreau
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 Staircase-Filn 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 846-4810.
Perspective
Ventura's election sends message to politicians
For those who don't know by now, there was an election last week. To the majority of people who didn't vote, you didn't miss much. Bill Graves was
re-elected, as were most of the incumbents.
The only mildly interesting race was for our local congressional district. Dennis Moore edged out Vince Snowbarger in what was a very close race from the start. Although a lot of people believed Snowbarger would pull it out, nobody was shocked by the Moore victory. And on, and on, and on...
Rodger Woods
opinion © tansan.com
Today's column, however, isn't about the achingly dull world of Kansas politics. Instead, we will look at the "OH MY GOD! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT." jaw-on-the-ground world of Minnesota politics. What does the election of Jesse Ventura (no relation to Ace Ventura because Ace is fictional and Jesse is oh-so-real) as the next governor of Minnesota mean to us? Probably nothing, maybe everything.
Does this mean that soon all states will be electing pro wrestlers for governor? Will "Stone Cold" Steve Austin be running against Carla Stovall and Kathleen Sebelius in 2002? That's very unlikely, although I would pay to attend the debates.
As the Reform Party candidate, Jesse Ventura (former Navy SEAL) was able to defeat Democrat Hubert Humphrey III (grandson of THE Hubert Humphrey) and Republican Norm Coleman — former attorney general.
Despite all the jokes, there are a few important lessons to be learned from Jesse Ventura's (former mayor) election. First, people are getting fed up with the two-party system.
This is especially true because both parties are so similar. The Democratic and Republican parties are both non-ideological centrist parties. Look at the Kansas governor's race.
I would certainly expect a man named Jesse "the Body" Ventura (former pro wrestler) to beat a couple guys with names like Norm and Hubert. But there is more to the story than just the names. Jesse Ventura (killed off early in "Predator") was way behind in the polls until Hubert Humphrey got the bright idea to demand that he be allowed in the televised debates.
How different are Bill Graves and Tom Sawyer? Sawyer wanted to spend slightly more on education and Graves slightly more on economic development, otherwise they were interchangeable.
Humphrey. Now many people in the state of Minnesota are saying "I voted for him, but I didn't think he would really win."
This was done in hopes of undercutting the support of Norm Coleman. The plan backfired. Jesse Ventura (radio talk show host) actually answered the questions put to him and started to take voters from
The second point people might take from the election of Jesse Ventura (governor-elect of Minnesota) is that we do live in a democracy. Despite all the pollsters, pundits and sound bites, Minnesota's future governor was elected because people liked what they heard in the debate and reacted to it.
St. Paul Pioneer Press columnist Joe Soucheray said, "What they heard was a fellow who did not presume to tell them that they were merely the wards of those who knew better." Although a lot of people around the Lawrence area would probably not be fond of his libertarian (smaller government, individual tolerance) views, we can take comfort in the fact that some Americans, somewhere, can elect whomever they well please to be their governor.
Now who's ready to hear the "Stone Cold" highway development plan?
Corporate marketing not all bad for the University
Few things capture the activist's heart like corporate intrusion. Last year, when Coca-Cola and the University of Kansas struck a contract to provide more
From advocates encouraging hordes of students to march to the Chancellor's home with shouts of "Hey, Hey, Hemenway, How many Cokes did you sell today?" to students crying because they were
than $7 million to the University in exchange for making Coke products the only campus refreshment choice, it created a student uproar.
Joe Walberg
Guest Columnist
Combined with the "intrusion" of smart cards, and the Athletics Department using Nike products exclusively, it seemed like the 1997-98 academic year was full of collegiate sellouts. But I did a little footwork on this subject and this is what I found out: Of all major contracts and general business agreements that the University holds, it is possible that some deals could be a total loss for the companies and a total gain for the University.
For instance, Coke gave more than $7 million, bought all those new bottle machines, promoted the soda and quietly accepted all the criticism from the KU community. Now, what would happen if no one bought Coke? Watkins Heath Center, along with the general medical community, advocates that people cut back on soda and drink water instead.
given no vote in the matter, much of the KU community was in an uproar. Delta Force even marched in this year's homecoming parade with a clever display of Coca-Cola dissatisfaction.
Why couldn't students just quit drinking the soda? That would leave Coca-Cola with quantitative losses of $7 million and the qualitative loss of face among KU students.
Really, it is possible that Coke has nothing to gain.
If Coca-Cola doesn't sell, then the company that produces the new KUID has the only real quantitative gain from the University. It actually gets money for the sale of our KUIDs, plus it gets the chance to say the University uses its cards when selling to other institutions. With the bus pass fiasco, the company may be reluctant to claim the University at all, leaving the company with gains for the price of the goods.
but the loss of reputation and a clean record.
In fact, of the major business agreements the University holds, I dare say very few could result in capital gain for the evil corporate world. One example: the Lawrence Bus Company. Unless KU students forget that their school is built on a big hill and start jogging back and forth, the bus service at the University is going to stay. Definite gains for the Lawrence Bus Company's business practices with KU on Wheels is a long standing contract with little chance of changing. Definite losses: few, if any, other than people getting sick in the Saferide cars.
Commerce Bank has very few gains that can be counted. An article in the Kansan not long ago said that Commerce had not seen any major increases in student checking accounts long after the new KUIDs were brought into the picture.
Net gains for Commerce: some accounts that are not immediately (but hopefully in the future will be) profitable and its name on the back of your Smart Card. Net losses: the cost of adding a small bank in the Union and paying people to stand behind that counter, the image of being the ones who moved the art gallery to the old TV room, and buying the ATMs.
When people preach against the selling of the University, they assume that the KU academic community is going to be a simple pawn to the evil capitalistic whims of commerce. I would contend that this is not the case. If the KU community wanted, Commerce Bank, Nike and Coca-Cola could stand to make no money, take only losses and risk their reputation in the business community. They would be pawns to us.
Student accounts are not generally sought out among banks anyway because they handle relatively small amounts of cash. Commerce spent a lot of money to renovate a corner of the Kansas Union to make a small banking service, plus employ KU students to work the windows. Commerce also financed the ATMs in the Unions and Wescoe.
My advice, then, is this: If you do not like the deeds that the University makes, then do not support them. Just run those capitalists dry. Otherwise, enjoy the money that the University sucked out of the hands of the American capitalists. I'm enjoying the benefits. You should too.
Walberg is Shawne sophomore in communications and political science.