4A
Thursday, September 5,1996
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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VIEWPOINT
Rape statistics demand a cautious student body
It is a sad reflection on the students of the University of Kansas that less than a week after the start of classes, a student has been sexually assaulted. This reflects poorly on the judgment of students and on the student body as a whole.
An 18-year-old woman was sexually assaulted Aug. 25 in the 1400 block of Tennessee Street. If national statistics on sexual assault apply to the University, this assault will be the first of many.
Last year, a handful of women reported rapes or sexual assaults at the University. Yet there certainly were countless other victims hiding in the shadows.
All students should guard themselves against such a crime. This involves knowing one's surroundings, limiting alcohol intake and knowing what to do in case an attack occurs, both as a victim and as a witness.
The blame does not, and should not, rest on the victims' shoulders. All students should respect their peers' right to privacy, regardless of alcohol consumption and other factors.
A 1990 study reported by the Chicago Tribune said that one out of six women would be assaulted during their undergraduate years. New students should be particularly cautious: The New York Times reported on Sunday that 60 percent of the women raped or sexually assaulted would experience those attacks in the first semester of their freshman year, when they were most vulnerable.
Freshmen are not the only students who should watch their backs. Sophomores, juniors, seniors and graduate students can be well-served by increasing respect and awareness for their bodies as well as their surroundings.
KU students should work hard to free this campus from sexual assault. The statistics are not merely alarming — they are frighteningly real.
ANN MARCHAND FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Appointments are important in improving Watkins' service
Officials at Watkins Memorial Health Center have taken a number of steps to ensure that student health services at the University of Kansas are of the highest quality. However, while Watkins officials have worked to improve services, students also must do their part to make Watkins successful.
Each semester, thousands of students visit Watkins without appointments and consequently spend much longer than necessary waiting to be seen by a physician. Only 25 percent of visits last semester were by appointment, said James Strobl, director of health care services at the center.
Beginning next semester, students will benefit from an addition that includes 25 new patient exam rooms, five additional beds in the urgent care section, a new X-ray machine, pharmacy counseling booths and other improvements. The addition will add 20,000 square feet to Watkins, already the largest student health center in the nation. Strobl said he hoped that with the new addition, up to 80 percent of Watkins visits could be made by appointment.
Not all illnesses that merit a visit to Watkins are detected in time to make an appointment. Still, substantially more than 25 percent of Watkins visits could be made by appointment, Strobl said.
The addition to our health center will allow Watkins physicians to better treat students' illnesses and injuries. Students, too, must shoulder part of the burden to improve the center's efficiency.
LEWIS GALLOWAY FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
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Clinton adviser's actions devoid of common sense
Erfirstly Clinton adviser Dick Morris said he never had wanted to become the message of the president's re-election campaign. He might have succeeded if he had made one more strategic move: staying away from whores.
Morris resigned last week after the Star, a tabloid magazine, broke a story alleging that Morris had had a yearlong relationship with a protitute from Virginia and that he had discussed sensitive campaign and government information with her.
The national mainstream media carried the story, keeping it at arm's length by broaching issues such as national security. But while this story does raise legitimate questions about character issues and how the media cover politicians, the real question here is, how could anyone be so stupid?
Has Morris not learned anything from past politicians, not to mention his former employer?
Just four years ago, the same tabloid printed a story headlined "My 12-year affair with Bill Clinton." The story nearly cost Clinton the election, and fallout from it dogs him to this day.
In 1987, Gary Hart challenged skeptical reporters to follow him sometime if they wanted proof of his marital fidelity. The very next weekend, Miami Herald reporters caught him partying on a boat with Donna Rice. The name of the boat, as if taken from a headline-writer's daydream, was "Monkey Business." Hart's career never has been the same.
Many like to use the Kennedy years to buttress an argument that
sex scandals involving politicians are a characteristic of modern journalism; or, as Morris said at his recent press conference, the "sadistic vitilion of yellow journalism." But such scandals are nothing new.
In 1884, newspapers accused
Grover Cleveland during his campaign of having seduced and impregnated a widow and refusing to marry her. Party pamphlets accused him of being known in prostitution circles, to which supporters responded that if every New Yorker who had broken the seventh commandment voted for Cleveland, he would win in a landslide.
STAFF COLUMNIST
It is ironic that the name of the hotel that Morris was alleged to have used for his prudent rendezvous was the Jefferson. During Thomas Jefferson's second campaign for office, he was believed to have had a long affair with a slave, with whom he had allegedly fathered a child. Meanwhile, his opponent, Alexander Hamilton, was alleged to have had improper dealings with the male treasury chief. His reply: "The charge against me in connection with Mr. Reynolds and any improper pecuniary dealings is false. My real crime is an amorous relationship with his wife."
that Morris is not running for anything. Though Clinton clearly is within the penumbras of this scandal, it really shouldn't affect him. Only because modern political journalists are captivated by the mechanics of political campaigns will this story have any, as they say, legs. I couldn't help myself).
The focus should be on Morris. If these allegations are true, and it looks as if they are, then I want to know what he possibly could have been thinking.
The difference here, of course, is
The prostitute, who reportedly kept a diary during the affair, claims Morris let her listen in on conversations he had with Clinton and told her early about the discovery of life on Mars. He even allegedly read her an early copy of Hillary's Democratic Convention speech, transcripts of which, I understand, are not expected to cut into Barry White record sales.
How could Morris, a political strategist, have thought this wouldn't eventually get dragged into the light of public scrutiny? Any course taught in political strategy, if such a thing exists, would have to include a unit titled something such as, "Avoid Whores," wouldn't it?
I don't see how we can even give Morris style points for guts or utter gall.
As Bob Woodward, famous Watergate reporter, said on Larry King's television show Friday night about Morris' alleged behavior: "It's not zuckspah. It's crazy."
Scott Worthington is a Kansas City, Mo., graduate student in Journalism.
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HOW TO SUBMIT LETTERS
them to get married.
The greatest love I have witnessed is the love my great-uncle and great-untie shared.
Lifelong love is becoming uncommon in today's world
He first saw her at a basketball game in Guymon, Okla. She was a cheerleader. He asked one of his friends who she was. As fate had it, she was his friend's cousin. He agreed to introduce the two.
When they met, it was love at first sight. The natural course was for them to get mar-
Love and marriage are a puzzle that can be solved only in a relationship with another person. Sometimes you will fall, that is inevitable. Sometimes you make mistakes that you will learn from the next time you face the situation. And once in a while, all the pieces fit and you end up with something that will last forever, 'till death do you part.
I don't understand why this is true. What has changed so much that people are unable to stay together through the trials and tribulations of life? Maybe it is because we have become such a throw-away society that disposable marriages are accepted. Perhaps the reason is because people are afraid of ending up alone and are settling for someone they really love. Could it be that people are not willing to invest the time and effort in a marriage to work through the problems that arise?
I don't know what the answer is. I don't think anyone knows.
STAFF COLUMNIST
They never had children. I guess in a way they were selfish. They did not want to share the love they had with anyone.
FATE
Their story is becoming increasingly rare. People do not seem to enter the covenant of marriage seriously anymore. The words " till death do us part" have become meaningless. Fifty percent of marriages end in divorce.
When death came to him a couple years later, he welcomed it with open arms. I think he thought there was a chance that they would be together once again.
Deanna Engel is a Liberal senior in Journalism.
Then it happened. A disease began to slowly separate them from each other. She developed Alzheimer's disease. She began
My grandfather moved him from California to Kansas so he wouldn't be alone. It never worked. Once you lose someone who has been a huge part of your life, there is nothing you can do to fill the hole that remains.
to forget things more and more frequently until she could not remember anything. He was faced with the most agonizing decision of his life: Should he put his beloved wife in a nursing home? He finally concluded that he should.
When she died, a piece of him died with her. Physically he was alive, but his demeanor changed. You could almost see the heartache and loneliness he felt when you looked into his eyes.
He went through the same ritual twice a day. He sat beside her bed and held her hand or stroked her hair so she would know he was there. He also talked to her about what was going on in his life. And he always told her, again and again, how much he loved her. She may never have responded, but I am convinced that her heart heard him.
SEE, I PUT THEM ON AND CRANK UP THE VOLUME WHILE I MEDITATE.
She became unresponsive while she was there, but even this could not kill the love between them. He visited her every day for almost three years.
By Shawn Trimble
BY. LEARNING TO RELAX WHILE BOMBARDED BY A CACOPHONY OF DISCONCORDANT SOUND, I BECOME MASTER OF MY PSYCHI
OF MY PSYCHE.