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Tuesday, October 15, 1996
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
Cooperation between students, GTAs needed
At one time or another, students have heard horror stories of enrolling in classes that graduate teaching assistants are assigned to instruct instead of professors. Stories are told of frightening situations that students find themselves in, especially if the GTA is a foreign-exchange student with an accent.
Sadly, however, these stories are not merely fiction. They are common conceptions on campus.Many students question the effectiveness of GTAs as teaching tools, which results in dissatisfaction in the classroom.
Problems often occur because of students' prejudices against GTAs. Karen Halleckson, president of the Graduate Teaching Assistants Coalition, said that some students were not tolerant of GTAs and that they wrongly equated youth with inexperience and ineptitude. Halleckson also said that students came to the University with the intention of studying with the most prestigious professors, and they felt let down when their course were taught by GTAs.
Nevertheless, no matter how one views the situation — from the student's perspective or the GTAs viewpoint — a problem still exists between the two. Students should realize that GTAs enjoy teaching students. Otherwise they would find a minimum-wage job that paid more than what they earn now. GTAs on average make about $8,000 a year.
GTAs provide personal interaction and learning on a more intimate basis. By the same token, GTAs should realize that students want to learn as well, and they can become frustrated with obstacles to learning, such as different teaching styles or accents.
GTAs also can gain more experience by attending voluntary teaching seminars that are offered by the University and other programs to alleviate the problem.
However, each party should realize that they both want to succeed in their studies or teaching. Both groups want to foster an atmosphere conducive to learning.
PHONG HU FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
University community must push for more safety phones
The administration's decision to consider adding more emergency phones on campus is commendable and necessary for the safety of students.
Gayle Reece, community education and media officer for the KU police department, said there was no way to statistically analyze the effect safety phones have on campus crime. But Rhonda Birdsong, communication center supervisor, said that calls came into the police department on the phones everyday.
Students need to know that if they keep late hours on campus, they'll be safe. At the least, they should be able to run to a phone if they need help.
For example, architecture and engineering students spend the wee hours of the morning huddled over meticulous models. Others point and click the night away at the Computer Center. The extra money spent on a safety device such as the emergency phones would be money well spent.
Recent acts of indecency on campus should open the administration's eyes to the possible dangers that lurk around the corner. Members of the University community should open their eyes to the light — the bright blue light with an emergency phone beneath it.
CARA SKODACK FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
AMANDA TRAUGHBER
Editor
CRAIG LANG
Managing editor
MATT HOOD
Associate managing editor for design
KIMBERLY CRABTREE
CHARITY JEFFRIES
News editors
DARCI L. McLAIN
SARA ROSE
Public relations directors
Editors
Campus ... Susanna Lóóf
        Jason Stratk
        Amy McVey
Editorial ... John Coller
        Nicole Kennedy
Features ... Adam Wint
Sports ... Bill Petellia
Associate sports ... Carlyn Foster
Online editor ... David I. Teuka
Photo ... Rich Devildw
Graphics ... Noah Mussuer
Andrew Robbock
Special sections ... Amy McVey
Wire ... Debbie Staine
KAREN GERSCH
Business manager
HEALY SMART
Retail sales manager
TOM EBLEM
General manager, news adviser
JAY STEINER
Sales and marketing adviser
JUSTIN KNUPP
Technology coordinator
Business Staff
Campus mgr ... Mark Odkmex
Regional mgr ... Dennie Haupt
Assistant Retail mgr ... Dana Contento
National mgr ... Katie Nye
Special Sections mgr ... Melanie Walters
Production manager ... Dan Kapo
Marketing director ... Lise Quebbann
Creative director ... Desmond Lavelle
Classified mgr ... Dan Plecotte
Production mgr ... Dena Plisotrete
Internet mgr ... Steve Sanger
Jeff Victor/ KANSAN
Self-righteousness makes U.S. appear hypocritical
Self-righteousness can be a beautiful thing. It is the passion born of knowing one is irrefutably right that brings social change. It is the wings of the ethically superior. For columnists, it is a job requirement. For the United States, it is foreign policy. After all, we don't circumcise our women-folk. We don't run over students in tanks. And we certainly don't imprison those who publicly speak their minds. Unless of course, we can frame them first. Take Mumia Abu Jamal for example.
Abu Jamal was a newspaper columnist in Philadelphia and reporter for All Things Considered on National Public Radio during the 1970s. He was an angry young man with anger, accusatory opinions. He was a great writer in an ugly, corrupt city who couldn't bottle his indignation or his inkwell. He revealed and revealed in the corruption of his city. He exposed rogue cops and social policies meant to beat down the African-American community. He went after the mayors, the district attorneys and the racists he found on the streets. No one was safe from his pen.
And of course, he made enemies along the way. After he referred to the NPR show as Some Things Considered because it was editing his writing into Spam, he began to drive a cab to make some money. On the way home the night of Dec. 9, 1981, Abu Jamal saw a African-American male, who had been pulled over for a traffic violation, being beaten by a police officer. Abu Jamal stopped to help. He got out of his cab, and the next thing he knew he was sitting on
STAFF COLUMNIST
the curb with a bullet in his stomach. The officer was dead.
Eyewitnesses described the shooter as a short, African-American male, about 200 pounds, with an Afro. Abu Jamal is 6 feet 11 inches tall, weighs about 170 pounds and has dreadlocks. He was charged with first degree murder of
the police officer. No gun was found. No direct evidence against him was entered into record. The eyewitnesses who saw the real shooter were not allowed to testify. And Judge Sabo was placed on the case. Sabo, known as the "Hanging Judge," has sentenced more people to death in the United States than any other judge.
Sabo denied Abu Jamal the counsel of his choice, and he accused Abu Jamal of scaring the jurors with his hair. He also let false and misleading evidence be presented by the prosecution. One of my favorite examples of this was when he allowed the prosecution to refer to Professor Sonia Sanchez of Temple University as a "friend of copkillers." Sanchez was there to testify about Abu Jamal's character.
But, it is the latest incident, during a hearing on Oct. 1, 1996, that clearly reveals the bias of Sabo and his complicity in ensuring Abu Jamal's death. Sitting once again in Sabo's court, Veronica Jones, a witness for
the prosecution, recanted her original testimony in which she identified Abu Jamal as the shooter. She said police had intimidated her into testifying that way.
Sabo repeatedly reminded her during the hearing that perjury was punishable by seven years in prison, and when that didn't work, he forcibly warned her that police were outside waiting to take her away. She held firm.
He then allowed New Jersey officers, who had a warrant that carried the wrong name and no Social Security number, to come in and arrest her on a trumped-up bad check charge. Conspiracy, you say? Illegal, intimidating, interstate complicity to murder an innocent man? No. Surely not in the good old U.S. of A.
Self-righteousness can be powerful. It can get you a job in newspaper. It might get you on Some Things Considered, if you are sufficiently full of it. It may even help to get you elected as president of the United States. But as foreign policy, it makes our government look like hvocritical fools.
We accuse China of human rights violations and condemn Russia for abusing Chechnya. We strut around the United Nations like a papal rooster, when instead we should be cleaning up our own mess by releasing political prisoners, pressing charges against corrupt cops and judges, and firing those that prove to be incompetent. Save the self-righteous rhetoric for those who have earned it — like Abu Jamal, for example.
Todd Hiatt is a Lyndon senior in social welfare
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Women supported, regardless of choice
As members of the University of Kansas Pro-Choice Coalition, Stacy Nagy did insult us. In response to her Oct. 4 column, many of the statements that she used to describe pro-choicers were blatantly off-base.
First of all, she grouped all prochoicers and pro-lifers into general categories. The term pro-choice means that women should have a choice in the event of an unplanned
Many of the general characteristics that Nagy wrote about do not fit the majority of either side of the abortion debate. We do not feel that "all pro-lifers are crazy." That statement couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, it is the very small portion of anti-choice fanatics that gives the whole cause a bad name. In addition, our organization's goal
pregnancy. No government should be able to dictate what a woman should or should not do with her body. Our goal is to ensure that women are not limited in their options.
is to support a woman experiencing an unplanned pregnancy. We try to help her after her decision has been made. It isn't to try to tell her that abortion is the only way. It might be for some women, and for them, we are there.
- Holly Howell
Pratt sophomore
* Rebecca Kuether
Topeka freshman
* Courtney Husted
Topeka freshman
* Amanda Smith
Amanda Smith
Salespeople's tactics invade consumers' personal time
Lately, I've become a bit unclear about what to make of someone who approaches me and begins meaningless conversation that is not an obvious gesture to fill an uncomfortable silence.
23, and his attire consisted of an old sweatshirt and cotton athletic shorts.
The other day, for example, I had been outside shooting baskets at my apartment's tennis court when a guy approached me from across the court. He was young, maybe 22 or
My initial thoughts ranged everywhere from his car had broken down and he needed to use my phone to the idea that he was looking for a one-on one game of ball.
Instead, he asked me where I
went when I needed an oil change as he prepared his clipboard, which had been hidden slyly down the back side of his shorts upon his approach.
If you are like most people, you probably are familiar with the relentless attitude of the salesman when you decline his offer midway through the sales lecture that has you squirming like the innocent woman left tied to the railroad tracks in an old western. The attitude makes you out to be wasteful and uncaring of super deals.
You don't have to be a genius to figure out that his question was the first of a series of intruding and time-consuming questions that would be used to probe and torture me until I gave in and signed up to have my next oil change conducted for much less and with better quality.
This is one example that too many of us have experienced during our personal time. It's become ridiculous. Don't get me wrong. I am, like almost everyone else, always on the lookout for a good deal. I just haven't adjusted to the good deal looking for me, and sometimes, even hassling me.
Shouldn't there be some kind of limit or regulation to this insanity that has many of us acting like worms on a fishing trip, trying to escape the inevitable sales pitch? Is it asking too much for a little free time and maybe even respect of the word "NO"? Of course it isn't.
I understand that we all have to make a living doing something, and that something is most often better than nothing. But give me a break!
The sales person's senseless attempt at conversation to either butter up a potential sale or to shamelessly manipulate the victim is often so shallow that it would be hard for any consumer to dive into their sales pool.
A straightforward approach would be more respectable and less time-consuming for both parties. It's like dying and trying to get into heaven, only to be hassled by a neighboring room full of pagans working on commission in an attempt to sign new members.
It is more an abuse of free speech than a symbol of its good value and function to society.
A simple solution to this annoyance might be to immediately start lecturing the intruder on the value of early '80s videos every time you're hassled for replying with a no. I bet the person would think twice next time.
Cory Hedgepeth is an Olathe freshman in Journalism.
FATE
By Shawn Trimble
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