PAGE 6
MONDAY, AUGUST 20, 2012
opinion
I have a six pack of Guinness, but no one to come over. Oh this is torture.
Text your FFA submissions to 785-289-8351
Who else was looking forward to this semester just to go back to the same FFA, Sudukah habit? Be honest.
It's Shark Week... oh and on TV. too.
What? No Jayplay or Friday UDK?
This year sucks before it has even started.
New apartment at The Connection?
Check. Liquor? Done. All ready for
school to start, except for my ACTUAL
school supplies.
Proof of a good summer: I avoided puking completely.
I'm glad the Olympics are over. I like real sports, not people trying to be the best at exercising.
Walk of shame and school's not even in session yet... It's kind of my thing.
It's that time of year.. Sororities are off of the 3 Bs. Party!
Now that I'm a senior, I am finally participating in Hawk Week.
There isn't anything much better than your professor emailing you to inform you to never show up to your 8 a.m. lecture.
The FFA editor is really impatient.
The FFA just replied to me. Best.
Day. EVER.
Really? "Call Me Maybe" is still on your playlist?
If only Shark Week aired Street Sharks then I'd be more inclined to watch.
Escaped Lawrence for move-in weekend. Success.
"I just don't have any blue shirts," said no KU student ever.
I think there's a moose on campus.
Somebody will have to try real hard to convince me that sororities are worth the money.
EDITORIAL
Two dog howdy!
Did you know there's a part of the brain named after Mizzou? It's the hippocampus.
This university needs a Hyphy Club
Apparently, there were 92 reasons not to vote in student elections last April. But you, the student, are losing because of it.
Campus politics rely on students
Compared to 20 percent in 2011, only 8 percent of the student body voted for this year's Student Senate. The result was a sweep for one student coalition last April. KUnited.
But that's not the problem. The problem is that KUnited's flawless victory came with no serious opposition or discussion.
ways that promote your organization in Senate affairs and use the tools that Senate provides organizations. Recently, the Senate helped set up advertising and graphic design services. The more senators help you, the more they get to know you.
You may not care about Student Senate. But with the election of a one-party government, the effect of students' inaction at the polls could have a profound impact in the student services you enjoy on campus.
That senate controls SafeBus routes, whether your student fees increase next year, if your extracurricular club or organization gets any funding and so much
more. Unlike anytime before, there will be no organized coalition pushing back against KUnited to be accountable to students. Now, Senate is KUnited.
The Kansan believes that KUNited is diverse and will be honest and steadfast in its goal to represent all students, protect their rights and improve their lives on campus. But the Senate has lost the partisanship that sparks discussion and new ideas that would have helped better serve those duties.
It's not KUnited's fault. Many members of last year's RenewkU coalition members merged with KUnited, creating a super-coalition. And Senatus Populus Qua Remenus, a five-member toga clad coalition running for Senate seats in April, focused more on exposing the flaws of government and poking fun at KUnited instead of seriously helping students.
FORM A NEW COALITION
The lack of competition is a main reason why the Kansan didn't endorse any coalition for the election. For the sake of the Senate, there needs to be another voice in student policy besides KUnited, and this is how it happens.
VOICE YOUR CONCERNS
If you think something on campus is unsatisfactory, unfair or doesn't work to the student body's benefit, talk to your student senator. Better yet, go to one or more bi-weekly Senate committee meetings and help the Senate understand your perspective. The 8 percent of students that voted does not give the senators a mandate to make decisions without reaching out to you. But you have to help them. Talk—they do listen.
INVOLVE YOUR ORGANIZATION
Factions will form, and may have already formed within KUnited. As the fall semester continues, KUnited members who share common visions for the future should find ideas that differ from the mainstream coalition and promote them by preparing to run for the 2013-14 Senate on a separate ticket. We don't suggest this as a directive to unseat KUnited, but rather to restore debate and renew the importance of Senate for the student body.
Whether you're a part of a student club, residence group or academic association, Senate decisions affect you. Find
ADVICE
Vikaas Shanker for the Kansan Editorial Board
Tips for freshmen
By Katherine Gwynn kgwynn@kansan.com
To all the freshmen currently floundering about campus trying to figure out how to get to your 500 plus person lecture or how to navigate the buses or how to attempt making friends with the other equally confused freshmen around you—I've been there.
Just a year ago, actually, which is a short enough span of time that my arrival at KU is still fresh in my mind. I was a freshman who knew basically nothing. You are a freshman who knows basically nothing. However, you have the benefit of having someone who's been through their freshman year (that would be me) to give you a few pointers. Because honestly, I think you need some advice, and I'm just narcissistic enough to believe my advice is pretty spoton. Here's what you, a brand-shiny new freshman, attending the wonderful University of Kansas, should know:
DON'T JUST HANG OUT WITH
YOUR FRIENDS FROM HIGH
SCHOOL
It's going to happen and there's nothing you can do to stop it. It's OK, you'll be sharing an experience with all students at the University who have a class in this strange, parking garage style-esque building.
Some of you will have come knowing no one. Some of you will come with the majority of your graduating class. To the latter—meet some new people. I know you might be super close with your high school buds or just ever so slightly terrified at the concept of trying to engage in conversation with people who are basically strangers on a campus of a few thousand and so. But there are pretty awesome people outside of the world of high school, so you really owe it to yourself to, you know, meet those people.
YOU WILL GET LOST IN WESCOE AT SOME POINT
YOUR MAJOR WILL PROBABLY CHANGE. PLEASE STOP PANICKING ABOUT THIS FACT
Did you know the average college student changes their major three times? Did you know that this statistic actually doesn't stop most people from going through a quarter-life
crisis when they want to change the major that they most likely picked because it either sounded cool, or their parents wanted them to, or it's one that supposedly makes money. Here's the thing—when you actually get to take the classes that your major requires, sometimes you find you don't like those classes. Which means you might not like your major. Which means you most likely won't like the career path that major will lead you to. So don't feel bad about not being 100 percent certain about what you want to study. Better to question and change now than get stuck with a degree and job you'll hate.
AT SOME POINT, YOU MIGHT NEED TO SIT IN CLASS OR EAT IN THE DINING HALL ALONE.
FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD IN THE WORLD,
LEARN HOW TO DO YOUR OWN LAUNDRY
Young adults have some serious issues with the idea of being solitary in public locals even for short periods of time. You may think that when you grab a salad from Mrs. E's without someone attached to your hip, the world stops and says, "Oh my god, why are you alone, do you have no friends?" The reality is that the world doesn't care. So neither should you. Get comfortable doing things by yourself.
If you came to college not knowing this basic life skill, call a parent or a great-aunt or a half-sister and ask. Google some step-by-step videos. Ask your roommate. Ask Dan the Bus Driver. I don't care how, just learn to do it already.
GO TO A BASKETBALL GAME AT SOME POINT THIS YEAR
I shouldn't even have to mention this—but seriously. Even if you think you don't like basketball, not liking a KU Basketball game is like not liking kittens. Kittens that can dunk basketballs.
I stole this line from a professor here at the University who I got to know very well last year. And while I don't want to encourage plagiarism, I think she'd be okay with this instance as she's all about helping students. And you are a student now. You made it this far, so you're doing something right. Take a minute to appreciate that See? It'll be fine.
POLITICS
IT'LL BE FINE
Gwynn is a sophomore majoring in English and women, gender, and sexuality from Dlatha. Follow on her twitter @All迪丽Gwynn.
See? It'll be fine.
Paul Ryan heading for policy criticism
In choosing his running mate, a presidential hopeful seeks to find someone that fits their campaign message.
However, they must also work well with the candidate and compliment the candidate without taking the attention away from "the talent" – which in this case is the name at the top of the ticket. By picking Paul Ryan as his running mate, it is clear that Mitt Romney is committed to making this an election about the economy, jobs and the nation's budget. However, by picking someone so derisive, it's a gamble that will either pay dividends or will likely throw the balance toward President Obama.
For most Americans, Paul Ryan is known as the chair of the House Budget Committee who introduced his fiscal policy in an April 2011 plan called "The Path to Prosperity." With this budget plan, the representative from Wisconsin, who now in his seventh term, put himself on the American political map as a staunch fiscal conservative.
In that plan, Representative Ryan proposed privatizing Social Security, replacing Medicare with a voucher program for those now under the age of 55 and turning Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Food Stamps) into block grants to the states. By privatizing Social Security, Ryan's plan provides
workers now under the age of 55 a choice of private plans competing alongside the traditional fee for service option on a newly created Medicare Exchange. Medicare would provide a premium payment to either pay for or offset the premium of the plan chosen by the senior citizen.
Immediately after its release, the Ryan plan was criticized by the usual suspects. According to a New York Times/CBS poll conducted in April 2011, 61 percent of Americans thought Medicare was "worth the cost" making it politically risky to implement the plan. As with any potential change to America's transfer payment programs, the Ryan budget met with stamina opposition from the elderly. But therein lies the problem. Social Security is a careening locomotive, about to fall off a cliff. The status quo will soon become an untenable fiscal outlay for our nation's budget.
If we don't take action akin to the Ryan plan, we'll be left without any sort of elderly or low income assistance. Instead of putting off the problem, as so many other politicians have, it took personal fortitude by Romney's new vice president candidate to reach some sort of potential solution. However, you can bet on the fact that in the coming weeks and months, President Obama and democrats will paint Paul Ryan as a ideo-
And this is why Romney's pick is one that will either make him or break him. A vice president usually doesn't win many undecided votes, but the wrong pick can sure sink the campaign. Look at Governor Palin four years ago as an example.
logue; Ryan will be vilified as an uncompromising, heartless conservative who sought to take away granny and grandpa's money.
But isn't Obama an ideologue? Weren't American voters well-aware of his plan to pass the largest overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system since Medicare and Medicaid were created in 1965? It's a fair bit of hypocrisy when people criticize Romney for his tendency to switch positions, calling him a flip-flopper, while at the same time calling Paul Ryan an ideologue for taking a firm stand on his policy positions.
McCroy is a senior in economics from Des Moines, Iowa.
CAMPUS CHIRPS BACK
What's your favorite part about Hawk Week? Follow us on Twitter @UDK_Opinion Tweet us your opinions, and we just might publish them.
@Luciernaga117
@UDK. Opinion Unionfest, or whatever they call it now. Free stuff, lots of people, and food. Don't forget food.
@entonlok
@UDBK_Opinion FREE GOODS!
@MelanieRR
@UDK_9pinnion "I love the first day of classes" - said no one ever.
HOW TO SUBMIT A LETTER TO THE EDITOR
LETTER GUIDELINES
send letters to kansanopdesk@gmail.com.
Write LETTER TO THE EDITOR in the e-mail subject line.
Length: 300 words
The submission should include the author's name, grade and hometown Find our full letter to the editor policy online at kansan.com/letters.
Ian Cummings, editor
editor@kansas.edu
Vikas Shanker, managing editor
vshanker@ksan.edu
Dryan Lynen, opinion editor
dynetr@ksan.edu
Ross Newton, business manager
newton@kanan.com
Elise Farrington, sales manager
farrington@kanan.com
CONTACT US
Malcolm Gibson, general manager and news adviser
864-7667 or mgibson@kansan.com
Jon Schillt, sales and marketing adviser
864-7667 or jschillt@kansan.com
THE EDITORIAL BOARD
A
THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Members of the Kansai Editorial Board are Ian Cummin
Vikaa Shanker, Dylan Lysen, Ross Newton and Elise
Farrington.