4A
Thursday, August 22, 1996
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
Kansan editorial board seeks diversity in issues
The goal of the editorial board this semester is to provide a campus forum that brings the day's events into a sharper focus.
If an issue demands a response and we do our jobs well, we hope to inspire the University of Kansas community to take action. The best way to accomplish this is by distilling the issues of the day into short, nutritious commentaries, while keeping out the impurities of inaccuracy and insensitivity.
In a student-run, laboratory newspaper, sometimes our experiments blow up in our faces, no matter how hard we try. We pledge to aim continually for accuracy and courageous experimentation.
In choosing the editorial board, the editors strived to hire students with diverse ideas and backgrounds. Board members are majoring in subjects such as environmental studies, communications and business.
THE ISSUE:
Editorial board
Contributors to the opinion page will strive for accuracy and fairness in discussing campus issues.
In deciding which issues are brought before the editorial board at our semiweekly meetings, board members gather issues from as many sources as possible. Our main criteria will continue to be issues that affect the University. The board weighs all sides of an issue and votes to determine its position.
Our goal is to open the editorial page to as many readers as possible. We encourage letters to the editor and ideas for future editorslals.
The only way this page truly can become a campus forum for issues and ideas is by getting feedback from students and others in the University community.
JOHN COLLAR AND NICOLE KENNEDY FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD.
University should follow the lead on peer advising
W with the fall semester begin- ning, advising
centers and other student resources are looking for better ways to help students improve their study skills and choose their classes.
Unfortunately, resources are limited all over campus, and many students find themselves on appointment lists or waiting for help in lines.
However, one resource is not being sufficiently explored at the University of Kansas a peer system in which students offer advice, experience and time to other students.
The peer system can be adapted for use by many student resources. The peer educators at the Student Assistance Center are there to help students with study skills habits and methods while the peer advisers at the School of Business offer advice on selecting classes.
A similar system operates only in the summer in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
This time of year, the advising centers of nearly every school are flooded with questions. This certainly is why they exist. However,the process of finding an adviser that can tell students what they want to know can get pretty tough.
THE ISSUE:
Peer advising
Every school in the University should institute a peer advising system for students.
It gets even tougher when students aren't sure whether they are asking the right questions. The largest advantage in a peer system is that the peer helpers already have gone through many of the same problems themselves.
The peer system gives inexperienced students access to that experience and can help students become more successful.
Establishing a peer system is not something that is done easily. It depends on individual schools to decide whether such a system is feasible. In the peer system at the business school, the Alpha Kappa Psi professional fraternity and the Accounting Club members volunteer time between their classes.
Similar systems across campus should include any student or organization willing to donate the time to help others.
All it takes is a commitment by students and the administration to provide this system as an option.
H. MARQ CONNER FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD.
Shawn Trimble / KANSAN
Embracing new challenges can conquer the unknown
Fear of the unknown intimidates all of us. In the last week, new students have trickled onto campus, meeting new roommates and worrying about the difficulty of their classes and whether they'll even be able to find the right buildings. Many of us are starting new jobs, hoping that we'll meet and, if we're lucky, exceed the standards set for us.
Suddenly, we didn't have time for fear about measuring up. The biggest worry became producing the paper any way we could.
Such is the case at The University Dalu Kansan.
Most of our staff returned this week to produce the back-to-school edition. We arrived ready to take on new jobs and bustling with ideas for a new and improved Kansan in which readers can find more information they need and more about what's happening on campus and elsewhere.
We were hustling around the newsroom, fearing the unknown and concentrating on our performances. Then our computer system crashed and stayed down for several hours, paralyzing us because we do everything by computer.
Everyone pulled together, worked as hard and as fast as they could, and eked out a paper that not only was on time but also was an excellent start for a staff of people still finding their way around and adjusting to the unknown.
But we overcome these challenges every day to bring you the best paper we can.
Many students and faculty are unaware of the amount of time and effort that goes into producing the Kansan. About 160 students write stories, edit, design, take photographs, create and sell advertisements and manage the staff.
We can ask faculty for guidance, and they're happy to give it, but the decisions we make and the newspaper we create each day is our own.
AMANDA
TRAUGHBER
As much as we have to be proud of, we're always looking for ways to improve your newspaper. With that goal in mind, we have created new positions on staff to concentrate on specific areas:
our new public relations director, will keep an ear on the campus to listen to what readers think of the Kansan and what they would like to see changed. She will get our staff more involved in events that affect students and the community.
Darci McLain,
David Teska, our new online editor, will supervise the Sept. 1 launch of UDKi, The University Daily Kansan Interactive, which will provide news and features on the World Wide Web.
We continue to search for ideas, and we appreciate comments from readers. If you love us, if you hate us, if you have ideas for us, let us know. You can send e-mail to me at editor@kansan.com, or mail or drop off letters to the editor at:
Matt Hood, associate managing editor for design, has reworked visual elements of the Kansan to make the paper more visually appealing and a quicker reference for our readers.
Welcome, new students and faculty. Welcome back, everyone else. I leave you with a few words of encouragement to help you meet your challenges in the coming
The University Daily Kansan
111 Stauffer-Flint Hall
Lawrence, KS 66045
(913) 864-4810
The Kansan staff
Experience on the Kansan has helped us gain reporting, editing and designing internships at The Philadelphia Inquirer, Newsday, The Washington Post, The Kansas City Star and several other respected, professional publications.
Some of us have had advertising internships at agencies such as Leo Burnett, DDB Needham and at newspapers such as The Lawrence Journal-World and publications in the Gannett chain.
The Kansan is the only college newspaper to win the Pacemaker Award, presented by the Associated Collegiate Press, for four consecutive years.
semester.
This excerpt comes from Nelson Mandela's 1994 inauguration speech. I thank Linda Lyle, a physician at Watkins Memorial Health Center, for passing these words on to me last semester. They have helped quell my fear of the unknown.
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
"It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?'
"Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child god. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you ...
"As we are liberated from fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
Amanda Traugher is an Overland Park
Senior in Journalism.
HOW TO SUBMIT LETTERS
their positions.
Guest columns: Should be double-spaced, typed and fewer than 700 words. The writer must be willing to be photographed for the column to run.
Letters: Should be double-
spaced, typed and fewer than
200 words. Letters must
include the author's signature,
name, address and telephone
number plus class and home-
town if a University student.
Faculty or staff must identify
All letters and guest columns
should be submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or reject all submissions. For any questions, call John Collar or Nicole Kennedy, editorial page editors, at 864-4810.
Daily Kansan enters world of Internet in September
As the first on-line editor of the University Daily Kansan's Web page, the UDKi, the "1" meaning "interactive", I'd like to welcome you as the Kansan takes its bold and daring first step into the brave new world of the Internet and the World Wide Web. On Sept. 1, the UDKi goes on-line at http://www.kansan.com. Here's a brief glimpse of what you'll find that day.
ON-LINE
EDITOR
■ Newstand
— The Kansan on-line each day,
complete with photos, stories,
columns, editorials and letters
to the editor.
Election '96
Election 96
— The place to go for information on the candidates seeking your vote this November. At UDKi, we feel that with so
many issues and candidates in the running this year, including two open Senate seats from Kansas, all voters need to have a place to go for information on the candidates and the issues.
Is this healthy? What other health issues are important to students? Charles Yockey, chief of staff at Watkins Memorial Health Center, will contribute a weekly column on issues related to student health.
That page also will include a link to Project Vote Smart's site, the Vote Smart Web. There will be links to the major presidential candidates in this year's three-way race for the White House.
Dinner and a movie — How good really was Independence Day? Was Sense and Sensibility worthwhile? On this page, readers will get reviews of movies running in Lawrence. Because dinner and movies are a natural combination, we'll also have a listing of restaurants in town.
Health & Fitness — It's conventional wisdom that many college students live on a diet of coffee, cigarettes and two to three hours' sleep, especially during finals.
Other pages that will be added as we build UDKi include: The Gallery, a virtual tour of art exhibits on campus; Theatre, reviews of plays and performances at the Lied Center, Murphy Hall and the Inge Theatre; Playhouse, what's happening in Lawrence's night life with reviews and articles on the various bands appearing throughout Lawrence.
Going back to what I said earlier, the "i" represents the UDKI's interactivity. We're not simply going to have pages and pages of text designed to bore you on screen.
Each of these pages will have relevant links that will take you farther into the Web and allow you to tap into its seemingly unlimited accessibility to a key ingredient for survival today — information.
It's our goal that UDKi will become the site of choice for the University community to go for access to the Internet and the Web.
I'll be frank with you: Working on UDKi has been exciting and challenging for us all. As we expand the page, I place a high value in all feedback (both positive and negative) from you, the user of UDKi.
After all, it's your page. If you have any comments, please feel free to drop me a line at the Kansan or e-mail.
Again, welcome aboard and enjoy the trip!
David L. Teska is a Lawrence graduate student in journalism. You can reach him at WebEdit@kansan.com.
HUBIE
By Greg Hardin