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
Jamie Holman, Retail sales manager
Dan Simon, Sales and marketing adviser
Justin Knupp, Technology coordinator
Monday, August 31, 1998
Robert Novak / KANSAN
Editorials
Student can fight back against pushy sidewalk salespeople
The beginning of the school year can be a very nerve-racking experience for students. A myriad of new faces, combined with re-acquaining oneself with good hygiene and good study habits can prove to be an extremely daunting task for many. It is on our campus where students might expect to find serenity from the daily grind. That is, until the first: "Hey! Take a free newspaper!"
It is a tradition on our beloved Mount Oread that every year hucksters descend on the University of Kansas in an attempt to persuade students to listen to a spiel, or possibly fill out some paperwork. As an added bonus, one might be able to get a South Park T-shirt or the *Kansas City Star*. Something for nothing? Students really can't go wrong.
That is, until they dare to decline an offer of undying goodwill. Often times, these salesmen cannot be content with rejection: "Surely you have a minute!" "C'mon, it doesn't cost you anything!" "You like John Belushi,
Sales groups are sponsored by groups or individuals within the University.
don't you?" It makes people think they did something wrong by passing up such an overt act of generosity.
This badgering is what is wrong with the booths that dot Jayhawk Boulevard. Most students have become callous to the constant "attention" given by businesses. The mere presence of these salesmen is not the problem. Simply put, it is the uninvited commentary during strolls from class to class by those looking to close a deal.
So what can people do if they are trapped by salespeople trying to shame them into buying something? Although some find solace in ignoring these people, some are inclined to listen to their rants with an extreme amount of patience. For those who cannot pry
themselves away from the announce, there are things to remember about these booths. There are regulations that each of these booths must follow when setting up shop on campus. The regulation that is broken most often is one that states that the sales people cannot be in front of their booths. This means that they cannot try to pick off potential customers from in front of their booths. If they are in the way, tell them that they need to move.
Perhaps the most important guideline to remember is that each of these booths are sponsored by someone from the University, whether a student group or an administrator. If these salesmen cross the line when dealing with students, students should ask the salespeople by whom they are sponsored and make sure to contact that individual or group. Students don't have to be pestered by these hucksters — unless they really want that neat-looking Cartman T-shirt.
Jeff Engstrom for the editorial board
KU bathrooms fail student parents
The University of Kansas is itself a community. As members of this community, we share a common goal, but our diverse needs compel us to seek representation among ourselves.
The University works diligently to address the concerns of those who make themselves heard. Unfortunately, there is one group of students whose circumstances make this difficult. It is composed of the nontraditional students. Many of these students have work or family obligations that make involvement in organizations that shape campus policy nearly impossible.
That is not to say that nontradi
Allen Field House, Memorial Stadium are the only on-campus buildings with changing tables.
tional students don't have concerns about the University. OAKS, a nontraditional students organization, has received several questions about bathrooms. Many OAKS members are parents of small children and would like changing tables installed in buildings where parents are likely to have children with them.
Field House have changing tables. This is unacceptable at a progressive institution, which purports to serve the community in which it exists.
Every day, parents bring children to see the University's museums, lectures and performances. Many of those same parents are forced to diaper small children in cramped bathrooms, either on unsanitary floors or unsafe countertops.
Only Memorial Stadium and Aller
The Regents ought to appropriate the necessary funds to make the University a friendlier place for student parents as well as traditional students. It's past time for a change.
Jennifer Roush for the editorial board
Kansan staff
Ann Premer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Editorial
Tim Harrington . . . . . . . . . . Associate Editorial
Aaron Marvin . . . . . . . . . . . News
Gwen Olson . . . . . . . . . . . News
Aaron Knapf . . . . . . . . . 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 Veazy . news clerk
News editors
Advertising managers
Stacia Williams ... Assistant retail
Brandi Byram ... Campus
Micah Kaffiz ... Regional
Ryan Farmer ... National
Matt York ... Marketing
Stephanie Krause ... Production
Matt Thomas ... Production
Traci Meisenheimer ... Creative
Tenley Lane ... Classified
Sara Cropper ... Zone
Nicolle Farrell ... Zone
Jon Schlitt ... Zone
Shannon Curran ... Zone
Matt Lopez ... Zone
Brian Allers ... PR/Intern manager
Broaden your mind: Today's quote
"It is often better not to see an insult than to答它." — Sense
"It is often better not to see an insult than to avenge it." — Seneca
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.
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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 864-4810. If you have general questions or comments, email the page staff (opinion@kansan.com) or call 864-4810.
Kansas ignores residents in the name of progress
Perspective
Kansas, in an effort to boost economic development, literally is selling the farm so that southerners can drive around in circles. Naturally, the farm isn't the home to anyone in Topeka, so it seems to be OK.
For those who chose to leave our fair state during the summer or for those who spent the summer in areas where the discussion concerned corporate hog farming, let me update you.
Rodger Woods
opinion@kansan.com
International Speedway Corporation of Daytona, Fla., decided that there was not enough room for "the good ol' boys" to run and that a racetrack was needed in the Midwest. It found the Kansas City area to be nice.
The people were friendly, and there was a fierce competition for economic development between Kansas and Missouri. Thus, ISC launched a bidding war between Kansas and Missouri. In the end, Missouri won: Kansas got the racerack.
The package from the state of Kansas and Wyandotte County includes a 30-year property tax exemption, tax increment financing, special obligation bonds of $100 million and more than $10 million for infrastructure modifications to support the operation of the racetrack.
Proponents expect the track to create a payroll of $5 million and bring 224,000 visitors who would spend $283 million annually. This is great news if you own a Motel 6 or Hardee's in Wyandotte County. If you don't, you probably will never see your money again.
1. If this boondoggle goes belly up, who's stuck with the bill?
Here is a short quiz:
2. Who gets all the profits from the racertrack?
3. How can I get in on a business opportunity where taxpayers take all the risk, and I take all the profits?
The Kansas Supreme Court, in its July 10 decision of Tomasic vs. Unified Government, showed a startling lack of backbone by allowing the state to throw 150 people off their land. At no point did the court explain what the public use was, merely that it didn't understand the whole thing and that whatever the Legislature did was probably OK.
Let me make a couple things clear. First, I like
Give yourself points if you answered "Kansas taxpayers," "ISC" and "What kind of deal is this racetrack?"
The racetrack has to go somewhere, and somebody has to move. This is where the power of the eminent comes into play. The government has the "right" to take land for "public use" or for the "public welfare" providing that the owner is fairly compensated. How this deal benefits the "public welfare" is beyond me.
The state is paying the people 125 percent of the appraised value of their property. That is a moving gesture. I have a quilt that my great-grand-mother made for me. It's hand-stitched and probably would bring about $500 at a quilt sale. (Yuppies love quilts.) I am quite certain I would not sell it for an extra $125, and I would be very unhappy if I was forced to sell it — especially if that sale was to an out-of-state corporation that would make an astronomical profit from it.
Second, I have nothing against so-called progress. If a racetrack would be economically viable in Wyandotte County, let's build one. Better yet, if the racetrack is going to be so profitable, let ISC build one with its own money. Let it pay the real costs of offering people what they really want for their property instead of using the hand of government to forcibly move them off the land.
I used to drive dirt track at the Salt City Speedway in Hutchinson, (Saturday, Saturday, Saturday . . . Bring the whole family out for racing excitement.) Perhaps I am just sour because I don't enjoy watching "the big boys" and prefer seeing my dad race a car that he and my Uncle Larry on which spent weeks working or seeing my cousin吹 the doors off everyone in his division and win the grand sum of $150 for first place.
Unfortunately, this looks as if it is a done deal. Too bad, I kind of liked the farm.
Woods is a Hutchinson second-year law student.
Different forces impact paths in students' lives
Lisa
Stevens John
opinion@kansan.com
The campus steam whistle brings me back to now. A young man pushes at the pedals of a red dirt bike, gripping the handlebars in strong hands as he struggles up the hill. I wonder how he will maneuver the steps. But midway up the hill, he veers off into the grass and follows the dusty brown strip of earth where no grass grows. A group of girls follows, treading single file as they take the worn path across the hill, and more people come after.
I sit as though in a daze, a lone college student on a bench at the top of the hill. A hazy distant fog of tissue blue cloaks
crest of the hill, marring a wide expanse of green grass. I wonder about the barren strip that surely must have been caused by water rushing down the hillside and careening into a slightly level area. It must have washed the grass away before splashing on down the slope. If left to the powers of nature, would this barren strip of earth eventually be dug by rainwater into a ditch? If left alone until the end of time, would it eventually become a valley?
the wide valley to the south.
I think about how that valley began with simple drops of water. How rivulets, then rivers, broke the soil and ran until there was nothing left. I am awed by the presence of the nature that holds the power to transform hills into valleys.
This barren strip in a sea of grass on the
About midway down the hill just below where I sit, a strip of brown earth runs parallel to the
From the bench at the top of the hill on a warm August day, it's easy to watch the lifting of the distant morning haze. Daylight puts the world into a fresh perspective while the two kinds of paths below diverge into one simple definition: some by water, some by feet.
John is a Tonganoxie graduate student majoring in journalism.
For some of the students traipsing across the hill, coming to college came naturally, perhaps in the form of a blank check, perhaps because all their lives they have known that college was a thing that was expected of them. But for others, coming to college may have meant taking out student loans or convincing their families that a higher education was important. It might even be said that the first group took the path carved by water, and the second, the path made by feet.
The journey continues as we follow one path after another, often not thinking about where we are, or why, and sometimes even forgetting that the power to choose the path is ours.
Feedback
Critic too concerned with character, plot
I think of my own life. A college diploma, an early marriage, babies. That was water—the things that were expected. But deciding to return to college at mid-life—doing nothing that was expected—that was feet.
This leads to thoughts about how some of the paths of our lives seem to have been formed naturally, like those made by water running downhill, and how others seem to have been made by the sheer effort of one foot moving in front of another, step by step taking us where we are going.
south side of Mount Oread was not made by water but by feet.
In reply to all of Jeremy Doherty's film reviews. Someone should pull the reel of film out of Doherty's backside. Or just shoot him and put us out of the misery of having to read his intellectually stuffy reviews of movies. Doherty's big disappointment is in the number of big special effects movies of the summer. In his review of Blade, Doherty tells us that we should expect a little more than blood swirling in a vampire movie. Why? The movie is based on a comic
book character who violently kills vampires, why should we expect more from the movie?
The same goes for films like Armageddon and Lethal Weapon 4. When I buy the ticket for these movies the last thing I expect is great acting, intriguing dialogue or an intertwined story reflective of human nature. What I want is a simple story, cheesy one liners, lots of special effects and a whirlwind of action.
I am just tired of critics who clearly have a predisposition to disregard certain types of film. Doherty, for example, seems well up on story and acting. These are fine in
movies that are shown for these talents. However, in movies like Armageddon I expect to see the same of what I saw out of Director Michael Bay back when he did Bad Boys: Twists and turns and lots of slow motion flery explosions. Doherty should be a little more realistic in his approach to film critique.
There are enough artsy-farty critics. He should disregard the pre-screenings, hold back to after opening weekend, take a friend or two, stuff himself with popcorn and have some fun.
Randall Meeker
Overland Park, Sophomore