Opinion
Kansan
Published daily since 1812
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
Friday, October 16, 1998
Editorials
KU women's athletics deserve praise
Thirty years ago, the University of Kansas lit the torch of women's athletics.
On an operating budget of just $2,000, the University started women's field hockey, volleyball, basketball, softball, gymnastics, swimming, track and field, and tennis.
Today the operating budget is in the millions of dollars and although field hockey and gymnastics are gone, soccer and rowing have taken their place.
Thirty years ago, women's coaches drove team buses themselves to transport players from city to city because there was no money to hire charters. Teams were forced to schedule games close to home so travel would be easy. Competing far away was a rarity and a luxury.
Often, women's teams drove in
This weekend marks the 30th anniversary of women's athletics at the University.
cramped cars and buses overnight or days without stopping often because hotel rooms could not be paid for.
But today, that is no longer. Plush buses are chartered to take teams to nearby states and airplanes are used to fly teams to far away competition. Distance is rarely an obstacle and coaches rarely drive themselves and their teams.
Thirty years ago, people laughed when a woman said she wanted to play collegiate sports. She was chided and told the sports arena was for men. But today, woman have shown that they
have the same heart and competitive spirit as men. Women have proven they can take a ball to the hoop or kick a soccer goal just as well as any man.
And in the 30 years since the University implemented athletics, the athletic department has shown its support. Kansas is one of just a handful of schools in the country that satisfies Title IX, the federal law mandating equal athletic opportunity for men and women.
The 1998-99 academic year marks the 30th anniversary of Women's Intercollegiate Sports at the University.
The University has come a long way and all the women who have worn crimson and blue and represented the University, when many people didn't realize how hard these women were working deserve praise of all for their dedication.
Spencer Duncan for the editorial board
Feedback
University has no right to control Web sites
Troubling signs abound that some KU officials want to appoint themselves as the "Information Highway Patrol," ready to ticket net surfers for libel, profanity, political incorrectness and other speech they find inappropriate.
the most recent Net Cop incident involved a feisty Web site set up by Templin Hall residents upset with hall governance. Ken Stoner, director of student housing, found allegedly libulous quotes at the site to be "upsetting," according to the Kansan. He complained to Jerry Niebaum, assistant vice chancellor for information services, who discussed the offending site with the KU Campus Internet Association.
The students removed the offending quotes, and Niebaum suggested that new KU content guidelines now being discussed could prevent such future problems — perhaps by limiting student Web sites to content related to the University's missions of research, instruction and service.
Such a policy would be futile and impractical when one considers the billions of ones and zeroes bouncing around this interactive electronic beehive we all inhabit. The policy also would be contrary to another vital KU mission: to serve as a freewheeling forum for free expression.
The First Amendment prohibits government agencies such as KU from judging and censoring the content of speech — particularly political messages such as those posted by the disgruntled hall residents. If those who create Web sites defame a KU official or anyone else, that person can sue the author of the message for libel. Terroristic threats can be prosecuted and punished regardless of the medium used to communicate them. Racist, sexist and homophobic messages can teach us how wrong-headed those ideas are, and they can be answered resoundingly by those of us who dis
agree.
Ironically, a University policy that asserts control over the content of web sites, e-mail or other messages conveyed over KU's computer networks could have the unintended result of making the University legally responsible for libel, invasion of privacy, terroristic threats or other offending words posted by individual users.
The fact that this new medium relies on the use of University computer equipment is no more significant than the use of the lawn in front of Strong Hall for gory anti-abortion displays, the Lied Center stage for controversial speakers, or Stauffer-Flint Hall to house The University Daily Kansan.
The University can't create policies that dictate messages at political rallies, the topics of speakers, or the content of the Kansan, and it has no business deciding what messages are appropriate on student or faculty Web sites.
Ted Frederickson professor of journalism
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
Angie Kuhn ... Design, graphics
Mellissa Ngo ... Wire
Sara Anderson ... Special sections
Laura Veazey ... news clerk
News editors
Advertising managers
Advertising managers
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
Broadon your mind: Today's quote
"We are valued either too highly or not high enough; we are never taken at our real worth." — Marie Ehneschenbach
How to submit letters and guest columns
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 Staffer-Flint Holl. 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 864-4810. If you have general questions or comments, email the page staff (opinion@kansan.com) or call 864-4810.
As a recent transfer student from the University of Wyoming, I can't make it home very often. The trip takes about 10 hours and unless there's a long
Mike Miller
Guest columnist
Perspective
Beating in Wyoming a wake-up call for all
weekend, it's just not worthwhile. My roommate and I planned to go back for Wyoming's homecoming, which was last weekend, to see friends and family. During the drive, I had no idea what was happening at home.
Matthew Shepard's death had shaken the entire state. We stopped in Cheyenne before continuing on to Laramie, only to have my parents tell us about Shepard's
Laramie is a small town. After attending Washington for three years, I had made lots of friends and acquaintances. In short, I prayed that I didn't know anyone associated with the crime.
beating. When my mother could not remember the names of the victim or of the thugs that beat him, I remember feeling my stomach suddenly fall down into my knees.
There was a slight sense of relief when I did not know any of the names, but I still had a desire to know more. Laramie was a three ring circus. There were banners flying from windows reading "Hate is not a Wyoming Value" and copies of the student newspaper everywhere with headlines reading "Student beaten."
The national media has called it a hate crime. I wanted to refute that desperately. I sought advice from my roommates, professors and peers on how to write an article supporting this as a vicious robbery. For hours I stared at the computer screen and tried. I made myself sick trying because writing it from that angle was impossible.
A person doesn't get strung up from a fence to die after being robbed. A person is not made to beg for his life after being robbed. A person's skull isn't crushed because somebody wants a wallet. All of it made me sick, and I wondered, if this could happen where I used to feel safe and comfortable, could it happen anywhere.
That one was what got to me. I had grown up in Cheyenne, about 50 miles away from Laramie, and Laramie was my second home. This brutal beating was not something that happened near my family and friends. Crimes like this were reserved for somewhere else — big cities, down south, farther north, anywhere else.
Shepard was beaten because he was gay. There was no other way to acknowledge it. Those two men convinced Shepard they were gay so he would leave with them. A girlfriend of one of the men told authorities they wanted to get back at Shepard for making a pass at them and for embarrassing them in front of their friends. Once Shepard got in their truck, he was pistol-shipped over the head after being told, "I'm not gay — and you just got jacked."
wno, at 5 feet 2 inches tall and barely 100 pounds, was smaller than most women.
After I talked to one of my friends who was bartending at the last place Shepard was seen alive, I found out the two men were filthy, with grubby hands as though they had not showered in days. After beating Shepard, they stole his shoes, his wallet and went to his house to continue to rob him. They just wanted his money, right?
During the homecoming parade, a crowd of about 500 people had gathered to march in support of Shepard many holding signs such as "Straight but not stupid" and "Wake up Wyoming, hate happens right here."
At first I tried to rationalize it by saying it was just a savage robbery that had gone a little too far. I was prepared to come back and defend my state and my former college by telling everyone that the accused men were not students, but that they were poor, high school dropouts with no place to turn but stealing. They picked on a small kid,
Could this happen in Lawrence?
I chose the University of Kansas because it was similar to Wyoming, just on a slightly larger scale. Lawrence is moderately liberal town in a conservative state. People are friendly and a person can walk down the street at night and usually feel safe.
I don't feel safe anymore. This crime could have happened anywhere. I hope the country realizes this and does not isolate this incident to Wyoming.
Gays and lesbians are beaten every day because of their sexual preference. Others are beaten because of their race or religion. It's scary to think that our world is stepping into the new millennium by taking so many steps backward.
Mike Miller is a Cheyenne, Wyo., junior in journalism.
Most important life skills can be learned at parties
I am supposed to be studying right now.
You know, poring over notes from class, reviewing important concepts
Man, what a drag.
and solidifying the know will someday make me a productive member of society.
Man, what a drag.
I'm sure glad this is America, and I've got the freedom to avoid such excruciating expenditures of time (can you tell I'm an English major?) Yes, I should be studying right now. However, I find myself paying $4 for a cheap plastic cup and filling it with even cheaper beer, only hop
H.G.
Miller
opinion @ kansan.com
Why should I spend valuable hours of my life cramming my head with information that will be useless more weeks from now when I could be spending quality time with 150 friends I never knew I had? It's called networking. I'm learning skills that will help me make valuable connections later in life.
ing that the brain cells I kill contain no information I need for my test on Friday.
I mean, I don't think businesses today really appreciate the amount of teamwork students learn during these recreational outings. There's a large amount of group coordination that takes place when lifting somebody upside down above a beer keg.
As the evening moves on, the crowd begins to dispense into smaller focus groups. My mind sails across the sea of intoxication and I realize that I haven't heard a single word the guy in front of me has said. Much like classroom lectures, I find myself occasionally nodding off while internally pondering life's bigger questions.
Who was it that came up with that Tickle Me Elmo doll, anyway? Some sick-o sticks a vibrator in a doll and now he's rich. How does that work out?
does that work. Lubricating my social skills even further. I soon decide to actively participate in other conversations.
"Look, the Campanile is a giant penis. I'm sorry, but there's something wrong with you if you don't see that."
Eventually, somebody passes around a cigarette that isn't really a cigarette, and I find myself a comfortable patch of concrete to collect my thoughts.
Silence from the crowd, and only the
Perhaps the most sobering moments occur during these conversations with highly intoxicated people. I, myself, am looking forward to unemployment after college, but I'd rather not find out that the guy who keeps saying he loves me is going to be a doctor someday.
I'm just waiting for the time I need my appendix taken out and the man with the knife says, "Hey, you were the guy with all the pretzels. Whew, I can hardly remember that night. In fact, there's a lot about college I don't remember. Ha, ha, ha."
Checking my watch, I see that the police are due to show up any minute, and once again, valuable work skills are to be put on display. "Yes, sir, we'll turn the music down. Oh, it's my roommate's birthday. We're only accepting 'donations.'"
Tired and weary, I finally end my evening by finding my ride home. The group of designated drivers is never difficult to spot. They're the only ones speaking in complete sentences.
Sure, my speech is slurred and I can't see straight, but I'm having fun, right? Instead of a boring evening at home, I'm interacting with my fellow students in a healthy social atmosphere. The lamp post seems to agree, and I'm happy.
cheap, imitation techno-dance music can be heard as I realize that maybe I should try that "thinking before speaking" thing again.
After a while, I feel brave enough to move about the crowd. Motivation comes from a bag of pretzels that I'm sure whoever lives here won't mind me sharing. Before long, I'm the best friend of anybody with a low tolerance.
And so the evening has ended. Soon enough, school, work and my body's internal defense system will all make me pay for neglecting my adult responsibilities. But that will happen in the morning. For now, I make a sandwich, see what movies are on late-night cable, and maybe think about sleeping.
I am shunned.
.
Miller is a Hutchinson senior in journalism