4A
Tuesday, September 24, 1996
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
Despite police presence loitering still a problem
Merchants and patrons in downtown Lawrence have witnessed a rise in loitering on the sidewalks and in parking spaces on Massachusetts Street in the past year, said Sgt. Susan Hadl, a representative of the Lawrence Police Department.
Loitering occurs despite a curfew for minors and police officers patrolling the area. These measures, while laudable attempts to rectify the problem, simply are not enough.
This kind of hanging out generally is not a bad thing; however, problems arise when people loiter around shops, exhibit unruly behavior and are disruptive. Loiterers should find something more constructive to do with their evenings than attempting to display their coolness in a college town.
While something needs to be done to combat this problem, restrictions once imposed in Kansas City's Plaza should not be implemented. In 1986, the J.C. Nichols Co., developer of the Plaza, decided to institute a no-cruising policy. To deter cruising, people could be stopped by the police if they seemed to have no destination in the Plaza. United Press International reported that J.C. Nichols representatives proposed an ordinance that would have made it illegal for a car to pass the same point on Nichols Road three times in two hours. That kind of over-zealousness cannot be allowed in downtown Lawrence.
The loitering problem is not being solved by police officers patrolling the area. The police department just began a new academy class in which more officers would be added to the downtown both on foot and bicycles, Hadl said. Perhaps this will alleviate the problem. In the meantime, loitering on Massachusetts Street must be attended to more thoroughly by the area's authorities.
GERRY DOYLE FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Former chancellor's legacy will live long after his death
Recently, the University of Kansas lost a bit of history. Deane W.Malott, Chancellor of the University from 1939 to 1951, passed away Sept. 11. Unfortunately, his impact on KU's culture as an academic institution has been forgotten.
He was the first Kansan to be chancellor, born in Abilene in 1898. He was the first KU alumni elected chancellor, earning bachelor's degrees in economics and journalism in 1921.
He was the first chancellor with business experience combined with strength as an educator. After graduating from the University, he earned a master's degree in business administration from Harvard in 1923. He stayed at Harvard as an educator, eventually becoming an assistant professor of business there before becoming KU's chancellor.
Malott combined a gregarious nature with a strong business intuition and a strong nature for organization. The University at his investiture was still stinging from the depression. Facilities were poor, aging and in ill repair. Many departments had no formal home then, including the School of Fine Arts and the geology department.
Even before World War II, Chancellor Malott moved to improve facilities. During the war, Malott maintained enrollment by bringing in Army and Navy training programs and implementing many programs for women.
After the war, the University emerged even stronger, largely because of Malott. The University's student population swelled from a prewar high of 5,896 to more than 11,000 students by 1949. Malott was responsible for the building of Lindley Hall, the former J.R. Pearson residence hall, Frasier Hall and the Campanile.
Chancellor Malott left the University in 1951 to become president of Cornell University. His presence was lost, but not his spirit. His history and his hope still are with us today.
H. MARQ CONNER FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
AMANDA TRAUGHBER
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society that makes people feel more intimate with television personalities than with each other.
A person who indicts society suffers pain and ridicule. It made Shakur an easy political target because gangsta rap often glamorizes criminals and degrades women. But rather than gangsta rap being intended to victimize a group, it and other musical genres like it are the lexicons of despair, discontent and disbelief.
Business Staff
Shakur represents politics of disenfranchised youth
Campus mgr | Mark Ozmek
Regional mgr | Denna Haupt
Assistant Retail mgr | Dana Centano
Administrative mgr | Ella Cohen
Special Sections mgr | Heather Valier
Production mgr | Dan Kopec
Marketing director | Lena Johnson
Creative director | Desmond Lavelle
Classified mgr | Shelly Wechter
Column by Adam Ward · Illustration by Micah Laaker
Gangsta rap is despairing about a political system content to give only lip service to the group gangsta rappers represent. Despite the University being 76 percent white, students are included in this group. We are political fodder because most of us don't vote. Politicians make promises, but when there's a choice between a cut in social security or a cut in education, inevitably students' causes suffer.
These artists are expressing discontent about
They call our generation apathetic. But Shakur is evidence that young adults are fighting the dissolution in their lives.
a system that creates low-level jobs for which young adults are overqualified and underpaid Again, most students fall into this category.
Finally, it is easy to see disbelief on students' faces. Many of them have been victimized by the ideology of an ineffective political system that helps to create jobs that offer little more satisfaction than a paycheck every two weeks.
Before condemning an artist like Shakur, remember that his ideas must have resonated with an enormous number of people for him to have been so successful.
But instead of examining the ideas that artists such as Shakur were consumed by, MTV rolled the stock footage. Their deaths signified little more to MTV than a video marathon.
Take away his stardom and Shakur was just another statistic.
But he wasn't a complacent victim.
But Shakur wasn't preaching a political agenda. He was shaped by the existing social and political environment. That's why his message resonated with so many.
They call our generation apathetic. But Shakur is evidence that young adults are fighting the dissolution in their lives.
People such as Shakur are larger than life, which makes their early deaths sensational.
It's possible to do this by becoming involved in the political process. It's possible to do this by singing songs about urban decay, drug abuse and unwed mothers.
When people are so polarized against the norms and institutions of society, it's self-destructive. But polarization produces change, it reveals corruption, and it doesn't allow people to accept inadequate solutions.
FATE
By Shawn Trimble