4A
Friday, October 25, 1996
OPINION UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
Hilltop needs financing for new child-care center
administrators, faculty and staff members should contribute a small fee toward a new child-care center at the University.
Because Hilltop Child Development Center has a waiting list of 202 children, construction of a new center has been recommended by the Student Senate Campus Fee Review subcommittee. The new center would support at least 308 children. Hilltop now has a capacity of 146 children.
Sean Haley, holdover senator, added an important amendment to the recommendations in the Finance Committee: Faculty members should investigate ways to contribute a fee for the construction and operation of the new center in the same manner as students. Hilltop now receives a $2 fee from every student, and the fee would increase to no more than $6, Haley said. Parents who have children at Hilltop pay on a sliding scale depending on their income. However, only students are required to pay a fee for Hilltop.
The recommendations were amended again by Senate on Wednesday. The new stipulation recommends that 30 percent of funds for construction of the new center must come from the University, the faculty and staff. It is up to these three groups to determine how to finance their share.
Faculty and staff members' children only make up about 35 percent of the enrollment at Hilltop, as compared to 50 percent for students, said Pat Pisani, program director for the center. However, administrators, faculty and staff members' potential to use the center is much greater than students, as many of them remain at the University longer than the average student. As such, they need to contribute in at least the same way that students do.
Administrators, faculty and staff members should consider the fee an investment in the community's future.
THE KANSAN EDITORIAL BOARD
New treatment for epilepsy another achievement for KU
The University of Kansas has proven its research is once again at the vanguard of medical advancement.
Researchers at the University of Kansas Medical Center and at the Higuchi Biosciences Center for Drug Delivery on the Lawrence campus have found better ways to control and predict epileptic seizures.
At the Higuchi Center, researchers have received approval from the Food and Drug Administration for a drug that controls acute seizures and prevents seizures that can occur during neurosurgery. The medication will be marketed under the name Cerebyx by Parke-Davis.
At the Med Center, researchers have unlocked the secret of predicting when someone with epilepsy is about to have a seizure. They are able to forecast seizures up to three minutes in advance.
More than 2 million Americans suffer from epilepsy according to the Epilepsy Foundation of America. It can be caused by head trauma, strokes, infection poisoning, infection, oxygen deprivation and other factors.
Ivan Osorio, a physician at the Med Center, and Valentino Stella, leader of the Higuchi team, should be congratulated for their hard work and dedication to furthering the medical community's understanding and treatment of a violent affliction. These scientists and other researchers help make the University one of the finest research institutions in the country.
TOM MOORE FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
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Shawn Trimble / KANSAN
Cute slogans won't solve nation's drug problems
There are more than a few things in life I don't understand. Buckyballs, for instance, or the masochistic appeal of organic chemistry. I know that there is something important about these subjects and that I should try to find out what that may be, but frankly I don't really care enough to figure it out. Something always seems to be more pressing.
I am too busy trying to understand a different phenomenon that has me stymied: the persistent belief that catchy slogans will solve complex social problems.
"Just Don't Do It!" is the latest example of this foolishness. Does Bob Dole believe that this new, updated version of Nancy Reagan's enormously successful "Just Say No" campaign will be effective? Will it really deter anyone — especially teens — from doing drugs?
The '80s and its aftermath, the present, should indicate otherwise, but I think Dole actually believes the slogan will work only if he repeats it three times whenever he says it — sort of like a bridge back to Dorothy and her little ruby slippers.
But in spite of Dorothy's success, wishful thinking and persistent repetition isn't going to fix this problem. What we need is an educational campaign that is frank, honest and addresses the issues surrounding drug use and abuse by
Who can forget the Brain-On-Drugs commercial? Cute, right? Cute, stupid and ridiculed.
My idea for a commercial goes something like this: A young girl comes home to find her dog dead and eviscerated on the porch. She
We need to say that even a recovered addict feels enormous pain and the longing to use again whenever they see their drug of choice on television or read about it in a book. We need to force some sort of empathetic understanding into the minds of our youth to deter them from experimenting.
STAFF COLUMNIST
teen-agers.
Take pictures of junkies into the classroom and show them what happens to heroin addicts. Show them junkies' high school pictures, and ask the students whether they think these people dreamed of becoming zombies at 25. Explain to the students in minute detail how addiction works from the physiological biochemistry of dependence to the crippling psychological ramifications. Don't dumb down the subject matter, but instead try to make it real, pertinent and alive.
Maybe if Bob Dole cared enough about teen-agers using drugs, he would go beyond the shallow solutions and the obvious gimmicks and explore some real solutions. If he thinks that there are more pressing issues, then he should just say so and quit chanting his meaningless mantra.
"Just Say No" just didn't do it. Just didn't do it. It just didn't do it. Just didn't do it. And it just never will.
Todd Hiatt is a Lyndon senior in social welfare.
Obviously, this is a little more harsh than the egg-in-a-pan concept, but drug use isn't cute, catchy or clever. It is dangerous and painful and should be shown that way.
immediately breaks into long, heart-wrenching cries of unendurable pain. An announcer's voice cuts in and says, "Can you imagine the pain she is feeling? Can you imagine the hole in her life? The anguish and the grief that is consuming her right now? Good. That is how you will feel every time you crash from a cocaine high. That is how you will feel for the rest of your life when you become an addict. Every day you will buy a new dog for $400 an ounce, and every night it will die miserably, leaving you in gut-wrenching torment. Have fun!"
Athletic Department is easy target for editorial
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Gerry Doyle's editorial, "Athletic department should increase benefits to students" on Oct. 21, left me baffled.
"The academic support system (for athletes) should be replicated for the entire general population," he also wrote.
"Athletes should be given extra academic attention," he wrote.
Maybe I'm just easily confused, but I can't grasp the point he is trying to make. Doyle contradicts himself by writing that all students
This defies logic.
Please don't infer that I'm trying to start a war between supporters of student athletes and the press. I know that this would be a losing proposition because those with the most ink always win.
As Doyle said, this isn't enough, though. Athletes and the athletic department also serve the purpose of being an easy target whenever things get slow for the media.
Jason Brown Stanley senior
deserve the same academic support options as athletes and then writing athletes still are to be given extra academic attention. If student athletes are to be given more academic attention than the general student body, how is that the same treatment as the rest of the student body?
ble amounts of stress and pressure. In turn, they increase pride in the University, increase the University's national exposure, increase enrollment and increase the amount of money the University receives.
I suppose it was just a matter of time before the Kansan editorialists began their attacks on the Athletic Department and athletes again. Doyle's right. T-shirts and mini footballs thrown into the crowd just aren't enough. Athletes put in tremendous amounts of time, dedication and hard work, and they endure pain. They deal with incredi-
Snow revives childhood joy, melts worries
I woke up Tuesday morning in a freezing apartment. As I rolled out of bed, I noticed that I had been intelligent enough to leave my window open the previous evening. When I went to close it, I received one of the biggest shocks I have ever had at 8 a.m.: snow. On Oct. 22.
My first reaction was to slam the window shut and crawl back into bed — to pretend I had not seen it. Next, I began to hope that school would be canceled. But my third reaction was different: I got excited.
And I stayed that way all day.
STAFF COLUMNIST
I love snow. I have since I was a youngster. I love to make snowmen and snow forts, to have snowball fights and to make snow ice cream. So after initially trying to run away, all I wanted to do was play in the snow. I skipped around campus, that
HUBIE
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afternoon, as excited as my 5-year-old niece. My friends thought I was insane.
I am not quite sure why; they all agreed that they also loved playing in the snow when they were younger. Talk of snow angels and hot cocoa (with marshmallows, of course) filled the air. We reminisced about beating our neighbors at snowball fights, and people were thinking about sledding. It seemed as if everybody was becoming excited about the snow.
Stacy Nagy is a Topka junior in Russian and women's studies.
I do not know whether we grew up and became cynical, or whether we are just too busy to think about having childlike fun. Either way, I do not like it. We have lost our innocence, and now, as college students, we are working hard to become adults. While we sometimes are ready to be grown-up, I am not certain that we should have to give up the pure, unadulterated joy that comes with childhood. We only have our childhoods once. We should not be so willing to give them up.
But then, the atmosphere changed.
Suddenly, the snow was too wet for snow angels; there was not enough snow to make a snowman; it was too cold outside; and there were other reasons why we could not (or should not) play in the snow. One friend went to work, and another went to class; I started homework, and the fun was forgotten. All that was left was the thought that I had to drive in this slush mess.
Suddenly, we were responsible adults again.
Occasionally, something brings back a bit of childhood innocence and invites us to play with it. This time, it was the snow. Last week, it was a clown that I saw in the grocery store. I was excited at first, but then I merely wondered why someone would dress like a clown to go grocery shopping.
By Greg Hardin