4A
Wednesday, August 28,1996
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
Multicultural Center is a resource for all students
The Multicultural Resource Center staff wants international, minority and all other students to visit the center. Students should take advantage of
visit the center. Students should take advantage of the center's computers with Ethernet access when their school's computer labs are busy. But while students are there, they shouldn't limit themselves just to the computers.
The center, east of Murphy Hall and south of the Military Science Building, was created to revolve around KU students. From study rooms to a conference center, students have access to the center between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, with evening hours starting next week.
Students should realize the significant opportunities they are passing up by not going to the center at least once to look around and see what the center has to offer.
Evan Heimlich, program assistant for the Office of Minority Affairs, which is responsible for staffing the center, said the center housed books, videos and art from different cultures. Students also can get information about student organizations from brochures and literature at the center.
A common misconception that some students have about the center is that it was created for minority students only. But all students can benefit from the center if they give it a chance.
Heimlich also wants students to drop in on September 6, when the center celebrates its first anniversary. At the celebration, an art exhibits created by KU faculty will be unveiled.
One of the center's biggest lessons, Heimlich said, is that it can teach students to look at ideas from a different perspective.
DOUG WEINSTEIN FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
T-shirts are a futile incentive for students seeking 4.0 GPA
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences recently announced that it would award T-shirts to underclassmen who earned a 4.0 grade point average.
While earning A's in every class is certainly a commendable feat, the commitment to studying and working hard is not swayed by material rewards. Instead, this dedication stems from the individual's need to excel and view of education as a priority. Therefore, the time and money spent on these T-shirts could be more effective elsewhere.
Sally Frost-Mason, dean of liberal arts and sciences, said the T-shirts would cost $5 to $10 each, depending on the complexity of the design and the size of the discount offered by the vendor that will print them. Frost-Mason estimated that a few hundred students would earn 4.0 GPAs this semester. Therefore, at the most conservative estimate, the cost of the program would be $1,000.
While this sum is small when compared to other University expenditures, the money could be better spent elsewhere. Frost-Mason said the money for the shirts would come from existing unrestricted endowment funds. This money could be used to honor 4.0 students in another manner. Even a new computer in a campus lab would be a more beneficial way to use the school's endowment funds.
Despite the admirable aim of honoring underclassmen who earn excellent grades, the proposed reward of a T-shirt borders on frivolous. Students will not change their work ethic or study habits for a T-shirt.
A thousand dollars could be spent in a more constructive way that would be more helpful to students and that would show support for students with perfect GPAs.
GERRY DOYLE FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
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Jeff MacNelly/ The Chicago Tribune
NASHVILLE — When you can't win the debate, shift the argument.
That time-tested motto describes President Clinton's strategic response to reports that drug use among teens has surged upward during his four years in office.
Politicians blow smoke on drug, tobacco issues
Use of illegal drugs by teen-agers has risen to almost 11 percent of those age 12 to 17 since 1992, when it was only 5.2 percent, the lowest point since 1980, according to the department of Health and Human Services' National Household Survey on Drug Abuse.
So it does not seem altogether coincidental that a day after the report's release, Clinton announced he would approve new federal regulations to crack down on the marketing and sales of another drug, cigarettes, to young people.
Predictably, tobacco-state Republicans viewed Clinton's statement with alarm. North Carolina Republican Sen. Jesse Helms asserted that Clinton was "declaring war" on tobacco farmers who depend on the crop for their livelihoods.
Another Republican, Elizabeth Dole, told reporters in her home state of North Carolina that the Clinton regulations were only a political stunt that would do little to curb teen smoking. And her husband, Bob Dole, clung to the tobacco industry's line that research linking tobacco to bad health is "inconclusive."
Who's kidding whom? I always find it amusing that the same social conservatives who want government to get into our lives on issues such as drugs, abortion or pornography suddenly claim government intrusion doesn't do any good at all in curbing teen smoking of tobacco.
As the young people say, let's get real. Almost all marijuana smokers started as cigarette smokers, according to the Food and Drug
Administration, and almost all cigarette smokers — more than 90 percent of them — started smoking in their teens.
SYNDICATED COLUMNIST
The percentage of children in grades 9 through 12 who smoke has grown from 20 percent in 1991 to a whopping 35 percent.
according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among young African-American males, the percentage who smoke has doubled to 28 percent from 14 percent just five years ago.
Just ask Bob Dole. "Where were you, Mr. President, while teen drug use was going up and up and up?" Dole taunted last week on the campaign trail. "Where were you?"
If Clinton is going to bask in the glow of the robust economy that just happens to be occurring on his watch, it is not going to be easy for him to wriggle out of some responsibility for the rise in drug use — especially after he reduced staff by 75 percent at the Office of National
Of course, one could just as easily ask, "Where was Bob Dole?"
Drug Control Policy three years ago.
But since perceptions are nineteenthsof politics, Clinton is vulnerable because drug use rose while he occupied the biggest bully pulpit in America.
"Since 25 percent of all adults smoke cigarettes, smoking actually is more of a problem among young people than among older people," says George Dessart, chairman of the American Cancer Society.
The answer would be, "Taking tobacco money." And lots of it.
Most of us don't need fancy studies to figure this out. Yet the tobacco lobby and its political minions continue to blow smoke over the obvious. Take, for example, the 124 House members and 32 senators who signed a letter in January objecting to the FDA's proposal to cut young people's access to cigarettes and reduce teen smoking an estimated 50 percent.
Why do kids use drugs? The answer is much too complex to pin on any one presidential administration. An upswing in marijuana use among youths began to appear in 1992, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Are we going to blame George Bush for that? How about the very appearance of crack in the early 1980s? Are we going to blame Ronald Reagan for that?
One expert, David F. Musto, Yale professor of child psychiatry and the history of medicine, thinks the upsurge in drug use by teens in the 1990s, just as the downsurge in the Reagan 1980s, follows the same long-term cycles of high and low consumption that have characterized alcohol and other drug use in America since at least the early 1800s.
It is too early to tell, Musto says, but the current upsurge may only be a short-term increase in a long-term cultural trend toward abstinence that began in the early '80s. Either way, each side in this political dispute should call a moratorium on blaming each other for a problem as complex as this one. Instead, Clinton and Dole should redouble their commitment to fight them.
But that's not likely in this election year. Instead, they'll probably just blow more smoke.
Clarence Page is a syndicated columnist for The Chicago Tribune.
Politicians should learn lessons from everyday life
As the general election draws closer, the political rhetoric has been turned up a notch. Candidates are promising to pass a balanced budget amendment, to lower taxes and to do a number of other things they think the American people want done.
These empty promises, along with the mudslinging that precedes every situation, have caused the people to
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become disillusioned with the government and its leaders.
might be photographed for the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or reject submissions. Questions can be directed to John Collar or Nicole Kennedy, editorial editors, at 864-4810.
Decades ago, when candidates running for public office made a promise, the voters could believe they would do everything in their power to make it a reality. Today, the only voters can
believe is that a candidate will say whatever is necessary to get elected.
There also seems to be a general decline in the moral character of candidates running for office. One glaring example of this is the former governor of Louisiana, Edwin Edwards.
Although he was never convicted, he was twice tried for fraud and racketeering. He has been the subject of at least 20 other criminal investigations. After he pushed a bill through the Louisiana legislature that legalized riverboat gambling, he was accused of nepotism when four companies owned by his children landed lucrative contracts with the riverboat casinos.
According to articles published in 1994 in Time and New Republic magazines, Edwards ran up huge-gambling debts during his term as governor. Consequently, he was indicted on charges of accepting bribes to pay off his gambling debts.
The people of Louisiana knew of Edwards' questionable conduct and character and still elected him to four terms as governor. This seems to be a symptom of a larger issue—the american people have ceased to care about the moral character of their elected officials because it is no longer at a desirable level.
The problem seems to be that the men and women who would be the leaders of our country have forgotten the ideals it takes to make government run efficiently.
These are simple principles that our grandparents passed down to our parents' generation. The Vietnam War and free love of the '60s caused the baby boomers to lose respect for the government and the lessons their parents had taught them.
Our leaders need to be reminded of these principles. To help them, I decided to make a list of ideals about life that was passed down to me by my grandparents.
These are things that the candidates need to consider during the campaign and the terms they could serve:
When we all work together, the achievements that can be made are endless.
Lead by example.
Compromise is not a dirty word.
Win with honor.
Accept defeat graciously
- Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will always hurt me.
Admit your mistakes
Brevity speaks volumes.
OUT FROM THE CRACKS
Deanna Engel is a Liberal senior in Journalism.
By Jeremy Patnoi