4A
Friday, September 6, 1996
OPINION
UN I V E R S I T Y D A I L Y K A N S A N
VIEWPOINT
Damaged library books exact staggering costs
Even though the information superhighway is being built, the more classical source of knowledge, the book, should not become dilapidated through student mistreatment. In a recent survey conducted by University libraries, nearly 20 percent of all library books contain writing. In some cases, books have so many ink marks that a reader has difficulty deciphering their contents. Therefore, damaging these books is detrimental to us all.
This same survey indicated that more than 30 percent of the libraries' materials that are circulated have suffered some form of mutilation. This is one reason why the Preservation Task Force has suggested an increase in preservation funding from $318,000 to $530,000 annually. Part of this money would be used to rebind and repair decaying volumes and replace those too damaged for circulation.
The libraries have more than three million eclectic volumes, and many students take for granted that more than 90 percent of these are no longer in print. Many books are mutilated by highlighting and underlining, which may be useful study aids for many students, but they are a common form of book destruction.
If a $200,000 increase alarms students, the condition of some of the library materials should, as well. The thousands of dollars that are spent annually on the restoration of damaged books could serve students better by allowing the libraries to purchase new resources. Students should help to prevent the degradation of library materials. All University libraries have information about the condition of materials and how students can aid in preserving them.
Our responsibility, as students, is to preserve the knowledge of the past so ignorance does not permeate the future.
NICK ZALLER FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Haskell/KU exchange program victim of administrative gaffes
Students at the University of Kansas have missed another opportunity because of time constraints and ineffective advertising.
The University is in the second semester of its Haskell/KU student-exchange program. Through this program, a student can take a class such as History of Native-American Tribes and apply it toward a minor or a history requirement for KU credit. Although this program is not the only way for KU students to take classes at Haskell, it is an important venture for both schools.
The program set aside 16 slots for KU students, but only three were filled. For a new program to prosper, students must know that the opportunity is available. Not enough notice was given to students.
Carol Prentice, assistant to the vice chancellor, said KU had received late notice from Haskell about what classes the university was offering and that there had not been much time for publicity. But Prentice ran an advertisement for the program in the Kansan last spring and sent notices to several KU departments. Prentice hopes that she will have more lead time for the spring semester.
With a program such as this, more opportunities are available to KU students, and they should take advantage of them. Prentice said this program would increase the number of classes offered at both campuses. With additional information, interested students shouldn't have any reason not to stop into 132 Strong Hall and sign up.
DOUG WEINSTEIN FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
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
AMANDA TRAUGHBER
Editors
Campus  Susanna Lloff
      Jason Strait
      Amy McVey
Editorial  John Collar
      Nicole Vanilla
Features  Adam Ward
      Bill Petulla
Associate sports  Carlyn Foster
On-line editor  David L. Teeka
Photo  Rich Devkin
Graphics  Joseph Mussel
Andy Rohrbach
Special sections  Amy McVey
Wire  Debbie Staine
KAREN GERSCH
Business manager
HEALY SMART
Retail sales manager
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
JAY STEINER
Sales and marketing adviser
JUSTIN KNUPP
Technology coordinator
Business Staff
Campus mgr ... Mark Oskim
Regional mgr ... Donna Haupt
Asstistant Retail mgr ... Dana Gentano
National mgr ... Michael Vallier
Production mgra ... Dan Koppe
Marketing director ... Eleanor Johnson
Creative director ... Deaumand Lavelle
Classified mgr ... Shelly Wachter
Jeff MacNelly / THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Gabriel Garcia-Marquez once wrote, "si no abandonas el coito, coio no te abandona." Simply translated, if you don't give up on sex, sex won't give up on you. A hopeful thought, and perhaps even empirically true...until you consider that Sr. Garcia-Marquez never met me.
1
Sex an outdated activity in our high-tech society
Sex and I kind of gave up on each other simultaneously last year. Using the vernacular of the dumped, it was a mutual decision. But I'm doing remarkably well. I'm eating less, thinking more and shopping to excess (an activity I find much less stressful and only slightly more expensive than sex). I'm listening to the Smiths more. A lot more. I've discovered that my Meat is Murder T-shirt still fits.
I'm also reading more, and I read somewhere (it was either The New York Times or Allure) that scientists are attempting to build an entire person from a single strand of human hair. Before long, we could have scores of Clairol clones running around. Soon, numbers, shades and tones could replace races, cultures and creeds, and anyone who dies before the age of 30 will be referred to as "semipermanent."
Irregular, nightmare scenarios often inspire me to think likewise. Thanks to this one, I have begun to wonder whether sex is obsolete, gone the way of the Betamax and the 8-track player. What if the sexual revolution was the typical, manic frenzy which precedes the burnout of every fad?
Images: Tiffany. Parachute pants. Disco. Why, after a few thousand years of existence, has humankind
STAFF COLUMNIST
been able to progress beyond these simple, base pleasures, but is incapable of getting beyond this sex thing? Reproduction, you say? Please! It's old news! Considering the magical things that can be done with petri dishes and cotton swabs these days, sex is
so low-tech
so low-tem.
And at our age, the majority of us don't have the time or raw desire to propagate the earth, so that issue is moot anyway. For most of us, sex becomes a means of a) relieving tension, b) attempting to make a higher spiritual connection with another human being, or c) sobering up.
If you don't give up on reality, reality won't give up on you.
Yep, there's that trivial consideration that sex — compounding its centuries-long reputation for generally messing up people's lives — can kill you now. The facts of life can be reduced to two: condoms break and people lie.
So sex is still useful. Or is it? More images: the can opener. Coin pockets. The 'open here' notation on milk. All distinctly useful things, yet none of them fatal.
condoms completely. Then there are some (such as me) who, by virtue of our inaction, get to talk about everyone else.
This elicits different reactions from those I know. Some are too scared to leave the house for fear of walking within a one-mile radius of an unprotected sexual encounter. Others take the revival of '70s pop culture one step too far, and forgo
The bottom line: As long as people are people, and people are simple and stupid, there will be sex and plenty of it. For me, the whole ordeal is more trouble than it's worth. So I've attempted to intellectualize sex out of my system. (Translation: the offers have dried up.)
Who knows, maybe someday I'll fall in love and approach the issue once again. Yeah, and maybe I'gain those 30 pounds of lean muscle mass I've been attempting to put on since the eighth grade. And maybe I'll move to another city. And maybe AIDS will just disappear.
concertante.
As for Gabriel García-Marquez' view of this whole morass, I have to remind myself that he also wrote about speaking chickens and blood crawling up walls. Si no abandonas la realidad, la realidad no te abandoma.
So I'm waiting for sex to go the way of the Apple IIE. In the meantime, I've found substitutes: colorful, glossy publications full of glistening leather and bare wood. PotteryBarn. IKEA. J.Crew. Kenneth Cole. And I have this column. I like to think that this column is better than sex: You're guaranteed to get it at least once a week, and after you read it, I won't ask you to scratch your phone number into the coffee table.
Mike Martin is a Lenexa sophomore in English and theater and film.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Downtown Borders would hurt economy
I am writing in response to the Aug. 26 editorial by the Kansan Editorial Board about the proposed Borders Book Shop downtown.
I find the viewpoint expressed therein to be quite shortsighted. I concede that initially the new Borders Book Shop would increase the economy of downtown Lawrence, but at what expense?
small business, about the only area you can realistically cut is payroll. That would mean lower wages, and in some cases firing employees. Sure, these employees could turn around and be hired by Borders Book Shop, but most likely at a lower wage.
First of all, to compete, the other small, specialty book stores would have to cut costs. For a
Next, those stores that cannot compete with this corporate giant start going out of business. This is when the real economic damage begins.
Downtown depends a lot on the patronage of people coming into town from the suburbs of Kansas City and Topeka. When these people come here and see all the small unique shops are out of
business and have been replaced by the same superstores they live next door to in Johnson County, they most likely won't return.
Now, not only are the book stores affected, but other small businesses downtown as well. Many of these business are barely profitable to begin with. If some of these businesses go under and people with the mentality of the Kansan Editorial Board have their way, the whole process will begin again.
Rob Grondahl Lawrence senior
OUT FROM THE CRACKS
Two weeks ago, The Christian Science Monitor reported that the United States was witnessing the most extensive voter registration efforts ever mounted for a national election. Although registering more voters does not mean a larger turnout at the polls, organizers of these efforts remain optimistic, especially about seeing more young adults vote. This must be a positive effort to strengthen our democracy, right?
Grass-roots voting group erases apathy
I'm not so sure. According to a
study by the University of California at Los Angeles in February, college freshmen's interest in politics has dipped to the lowest point in 30 years. The study also found that paying attention to political events was important to only 28.5 percent of college freshmen, down from 57.8 percent in 196
Courtting a young, misled electorate doesn't sound promising for the quality of democracy.
for example, MTV's Rock the Vote encourages young adults to cast their ballots. Considering the lack of political interest among college students, we can assume that the students that MTV is encouraging to register would be more content watching Tabitha Soren interview Pearl Jam than Bob Dole or Bill Clinton. The efforts of MTV are valiant, but they don't attack the root of the problem: ignorance of the system.
For many college students it's simply too late. Irresponsibly attacking our government is already a fortified tradition in political culture.
"Neglect of our democratic tradition in either high school or college defies the very idea of public education," Chapman wrote. He explained that as multiculturalism has exploded, knowledge of and participation in our own system have suffered.
So what explains this political apathy? Sure, a litany of scandals involving corrupt politicians do contribute, but Bruce Chapman, a columnist with the Seattle Post Intelligencer, acknowledged a lack of civic education at the high school and college level.
Is it jingoistic to encourage learning about our values, the sources of our political institutions and the meaning of our participation? In today's political climate, when the government is widely viewed as too big, too intrusive and just too darn hard to understand, it's refreshing to see a group like Kids Voting present our political process to children as the medium for protecting our freedom. The habits the students are forming now could stay with them when they are adults.
To avoid such ignorance, 20 states, including Kansas, have initiated programs affiliated with Kids Voting U.S.A., a grass-roots, nonpartisan organization dedicated to educating students about American democracy. The program allows students to go to the polls with their parents and vote for the same candidate. Although the students' votes are not counted in the official results, their votes are tallied and reported at school and by the media.
Among school administrators questioned, 100 percent thought that Kids Voting U.S.A. increased the students' knowledge of the electoral process. Eighty-two percent of the parents surveyed claimed that discussion about the elections were initiated by their children at least once a week. Some parents decided to vote because of their children's inquiries about the election.
Andrew Longstreet is a Liberty, Mo.
senior in French and political science.
By Jeremy Patnoi