Opinion
Kansan
Published daily since 1912
Jodie Chester, Editor Marc Harrell, Bustness 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
Thursday, October 8, 1998
Editorials
University, KU on Wheels need to provide benches, shelter for riders
Students at bus stops all across campus deserve to have benches and some sort of protection from the elements. Many bus stops on campus leave students without a place to sit and completely exposed to whatever harsh weather is upon them. This is a problem that needs to be addressed by either the University or KU on Wheels.
Bus stops such as the one at the corner of Naismith and Sunnyside are an example of what bus stops should not be. This particular stop has no benches and no shelter.
Students don't need to be pampered, but at the same time, there are many hills on this campus. Walking up and down them is cause enough for the University to
Bus patrons are left in harsh elements without a place to sit or escape the weather.
place benches wherever they can.
place benches wherever they can. The issue of shelters at bus stops also is a big one. Students trying unable to avoid the heat sit on the hot sidewalk while absorbing harmful and direct ultraviolet rays.
When winter sets in on campus, these same students will stand, unprotected, while slicing winds batter them and snow falls on them. Is this necessary? Is it too
great a trouble to provide for these students? The answer is no.
Having benches, shelters or additional sidewalk space at most bus stops would come at considerable cost, but one that can be justified.
The cost could be offset by having advertisements placed on the benches. Or perhaps individual organizations could sponsor a bench and permanently have their organization publicized on campus. Or maybe a particular class such as the class of '99 could donate a bench as a class gift. Regardless of how it is done, it needs to be done. Students have stood for this inconvenience long enough.
Leonard West for the editorial board
Composting at scholarship halls should serve as example to others
Although the scholarship hall composting program is on hold, efforts are being made to ensure that composting becomes a reality and an example of a student initiated program for environmental action on campus.
The program was started in 1997 Douthart and Grace Pearson scholarship halls were part of the initial effort. The project would like to involve several more halls.
Victoria Silva, Resource Conservation Manager at the Office of Conservation and Recycling, said the project has been put on hold because the location on West Campus is near
The program is on hold right now because of construction but will begin again.
a construction site. Until the area is safe, the project will remain in the development stages.
The plan is to use food waste from Douthart and Grace Pearson scholarship halls and animal bedding waste from Malott as compost. The compost will most likely be used for landscaping on campus.
Because the scholarship halls prepare their own food and control
the waste they produce from food preparation, the composting program is an excellent way for the halls to make a difference. Recycling biodegradable waste is an aspect of conservation residents can control.
With the help of the Office of Conservation and Recycling, the project has a good chance of success. Hopefully, the logistics of the site can be worked out soon so this program can leave the planning phase and enter the active phase.
The goal should be for composting programs to spread to other parts of the University.
Kansan staff
Erinn R. Barcomb for the editorial board
Ann Premer ... Editorial
Tim Harrington ... Associate Editorial
Aaron Marvin ... Nees
Gwen Olson ... Nees
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
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 Melsenheimer ... 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
“Men willingly believe what they wish.” — Julius Caesar
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 Stauffer-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.
Perspective
Magic Eight ball predicts 1998 election winners
Rodger Woods
opinion@kansan.com
While cleaning out my closet in a desperate attempt to find some winter clothes, I found
clothes, and an old Magic Eight Ball, the black, filled-with-green-liquid kind, not the clear, filled-with-amber-liquid kind. With the election less than a month away, I decided to put it to good use. I now present the state-wide election '98 predictions from the Eight Ball.
Please keep in mind that these are merely predictions of who will win, not necessarily who should
It is rattle to disagree with my predictions because the Magic Eight Ball never lies.
Question No. 1: Will Bill Graves win a second term as governor?
Answer: Definitely yes.
Answer. Demilitary yes.
This is so easy I probably could have predicted it without the help of the Magic Eightball.
Although Tom Sawyer has gained a lot of respect from Republicans and Democrats for his willingness to "take one for the team," his chances of being governor evaporated when David Miller was trounced in the primary.
Sawyer has done an admirable job running a clean race and using what is an obviously doomed campaign to bring attention to various issues such as funding for secondary education and debt reduction.
Taxpayer Party candidate Kirt Poovey will get some ultra-conservative Republican support from those disappointed by David Miller's loss, but not enough to make it interesting. Darryl King of the Reform Party will be lucky to get enough votes to maintain the Reform Party's ballot access.
Question No. 2. Is Brownback back?
Answer: Yes.
Answer. 1
Democrat Paul Feleciano, Libertarian Tom Oyler and Reform Party candidate Alvin Bauman combined don't have Sam Brownback's name recognition. Besides, Brownback has been cruising around the state in a really cool bus.
Question No. 3. Can Dan Lykins beat Carla
Question No. 3: Can Dan Lykins beat Carla Stovall for attorney general?
Answer: No.
It is my understanding that Dan Lykins only entered the race at the last minute so Stovall wouldn't run unopposed. That isn't to say that he shouldn't win, just that the Magle Eight Ball knows that Carla Stovall is one of the most popular political figures in the state right now.
Things have generally been quiet in the secretary of state's office and that suits most Kansas voters just fine.
ular political figures in the state.
Question No. 4: Is anyone running against
Ron Thornburg for secretary of state?
Answer. Oscar the Magic Eight Ball was unaware that this is a contested race. The official listing says Democrat Don Rezac, Libertarian Steve Rosile and Sandi Boehr of the Taxpayers Party are also running. Until someone figures out what the secretary of state does, it is probably enough that Thornburg has not had any major scandals while he has been in office.
Ron Thornburg for secretary of
Answer: Unclear at this time.
Question No. 5: Can a Democrat win a statewide office this year?
Kathleen Sebellius is the only Democrat currently in wide office. She won last time because she was able to capitalize on her promise not to take money from the insurance industry and the shenanigans of the previous Republican incumbents. This time, she is facing a political newcomer in Republican Bryan Riley, and the burden of her own record of taking money from insurance company lobbyists and a decline in the number of consumer complaints that her office has been able to resolve. However, the Democrats full effort will be behind maintaining their only state-wide office. The eight ball believes that too many Democrats will stay at home on Nov. 3 for her to keep her office.
Question No. 6: Is Rita Cline going to hold statewide elected office?
Answer: Unlikely.
Answer: No.
The predictions of the Magic Eight Ball appear to be very accurate. If you are interested in other Magic Eight Ball predictions, perhaps in the fields of romance or sports scores, please send five dollars, cash only, to Rodger Woods, c/o University Daily Kansan, University of Kansas 66045.
Answer: Running against former Republican Majority Leader Tim Shallenburger is tough enough. It gets even harder because Rita has developed a reputation as a loose cannon while working as Shawnee County treasurer. Incidents such as changing from Democrat to Republican for a day, just to prove a point, and dinners with Fred Phelps don't do much to give the appearance of a steady personality. Shallenburger is trying to position himself for a shot at governor in 2002 and won't let this opportunity slain away.
Woods is a Hutchinson second-year law student.
Feedback
Columnist not fair to student athletes
I really have a problem with an column written in the Oct. 5 edition of The University Daily Kansan. The title is Spoiled players abusing athletic program chances by Meredith Toenjes. I am a pole vaulter on the Kansas track team writing this disagreement with one of my teammates who is also a pole vaulter.
We are held to the same if not higher standards as the average student because we are students first and foremost, athletes second. I personally am here to get an education.
As athletes, we represent this University. When we travel to compete, we must not only abide by the University's rules, but our team rules as well. If we violate these rules, we loose the chance to compete in the future and risk expulsion from the team.
Next, very few athletes receive a full scholarship. Each team is allowed a certain number of scholarships to divide.
A positive drug test for any substance would be cause for severe punishment. One such penalty would be the loss of one year of eligibility. Also, if the coaching staff decides to throw an athlete off the team, their word is law. This athlete now, most likely, cannot afford to further their education and must say "Do you want fries with that?" for the rest of their life.
If an average student uses drugs or alcohol to excess, no one really cares or even knows. Because I am a student athlete, I am held to higher standards by the NCAA, the Big 12 Conference and KU because they drug test their athletes.
Regarding the free tutors, I work hard for what I get. I go to class every day until 1:30. I go to practice from 2:30, sometimes until as late as 6 p.m. Because I'm at practice and have to schedule all my classes in one block in the morning, I can't meet with teachers or TA's to get the help I need. Also, during the traveling season, I end up missing classes.
This makes a tutor almost
I hope in the future, the columnists at the Kansan research their topics a little bit better and do not broadly generalize the actions of one or two athletes. Correlation is not causation. If one athlete does something wrong, that does not mean that all of us are bad. The same thing applies to the average student. If one student writes a poor article, I'm not going to think all journalists are lazy.
mandatory. I am majoring in mechanical engineering so there are very few class sessions that I can miss and still pass the course.
Greg Steele
Ashland, Ohio, sophomore
Andrea Branson
Leawood sophomore
Also, I don't know where the author pulled graduating in eight years from. I have five years to get four years of eligibility in. After that, I'm on my own.
Sawyer's STARS program is viable
Recently, a column was published in the University Daily Kansan regarding Tom Sawyer's program to provide free tuition to Kansas students. Andrew Marino attempted to pawn off STARS as a simple political gimmick and his main thrust was that STARS would inflate grades and facilitate educational fraud. Apparently Marino didn't do his homework on this one.
While he certainly conveys his opinion, he blatantly ignores the facts of the matter. STARS is a program that will provide a $2,600 scholarship each year for four years to any in-state student at a vocational school, university, junior college, etc. Recipients must have a B average in high school and maintain a 2.75 GPA in college. The program will be financed using state lottery monies and will not cost the taxpayer one cent.
It imposes no burdens on the public and will help provide a brighter, better future to many students who might otherwise be unable to achieve it. Perhaps Marino has never sat up at night wondering. "Can I
An ally like Tom Sawyer is invaluable in this area. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, STARS is not some unreachable pipe dream made up to win votes for this election. It is based on the HOPE program, which has been operating in Georgia for more than five years now. This is a proven and successful enterprise. As far as the mistaken claims of grade inflation and educational fraud, the Council for School Performance reported that "since 1994, the number of HOPE recipients has increased, and the average SAT score has increased. Statistical analysis shows that as high school GPAs rise, SAT scores increase. If students were receiving HOPE due to inflated grades, we would not expect to see rising SAT scores."
This program does not inflate grades, and it does not flood colleges and universities with underachieving students. It has been tested and shown to clearly improve the academic standard. If Marino was truly concerned about high academic values and about giving each and every student a chance, then he would wholeheartedly support this program and its initiatives. His condemnation of STARS shows a great deal of partisan bias and personal opinion but very little truth.
really afford to be here?" Perhaps he thinks that money for college is easy to find or that higher education is cheap. Well, it is not, and I have sat up at night wondering. For example, my expected family contribution for this year was calculated at about $1,600. What this means is that my college experience for just one year costs about $8,600 more than my family could afford. Without scholarship and financial aid money, I would not be here. Paid tuition would be a huge benefit to students in similar or far worse situations Money does not grow on trees and some of us need all the help we can get.
+
Jesse Lee Oehlert Haven freshman