OPINION
MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2004
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
www.kansan.com
EDITORIAL BOARD
Students' feelings best shown by referendum
Several weeks after proposing to implement a fee for classes offered through the College of Liberal Arts.
and Sciences, Kim Wilcox, dean in liberal arts, said a new fourth stage was added to the proposal. In this new stage, students would be able to vote on the increases. However, the dean's words are misleading.
The methods through which this vote would occur are numerous: the College Assembly could decide the issue; students could vote in a referendum; surveys could be passed out on campus; individual departments or Student Senate could vote on the proposal.
All but instituting a referendum on the spring ballot are inadequate methods for determining the student stance on such a critical issue.
The CLAS College Assembly hardly has the authority to vote on something of such a sensitive nature. Considering that any student member of the Assembly isn't elected by the student body, and that a good portion of the board is made up of faculty, it doesn't have the appropriate group from which to draw a student opinion on paying an eventual $30 more a credit hour for tuition. And few student members even attend Assembly meetings, further diminishing real student input.
Surveys are an inappropriate method of collecting data. It can be argued that people don't take voting seriously, but they'll take surveys even less so. Where would the surveys be passed out in order to get an accurate reading of all types of students, from the freshman in humanities, to the engineering graduate student? Using surveys to determine future fee increases is reminiscent of the solicitors in front of Wescoe Hall. No one would pay attention.
Using surveys to determine future tuition bills is reminiscent of the solicitors one sees in front of Wescoe Hall at the beginning of every fall semester. No one would pay attention.
What departments would be able to give their opinion? The proposal would primarily benefit the humanities and life sciences. What about the engineering, business, art, and architecture schools? Would they have an equal voice, since their students do have to take some CLAS courses?
Allowing Student Senate to vote on the issue appears to be an appropriate way of finding the student perspective. Unfortunately, such a task is not their responsibility. Senate controls the funds received through student fees, not tuition. Senators would be voting on something they have no power over — money they could never allocate.
A referendum is the only option available if CLAS truly desires an accurate reading of how students feel about an increase in tuition.
Students may choose not to vote, or make light of the situation, but giving them the opportunity to give their opinions without diluting it through the Assembly, departments, or Student Senate would not only allow a better perception of student opinion, but give CLAS the authority it would need, should the referendum pass.
After all, they'll be able to truly say,
"You voted for it."
Free for All
Call 864-0500
Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. Kansas editors reserve the right to omit comments. Slanderous and obscene statements will not be printed. Phone numbers of all incoming calls are recorded.
Hey, is it just my imagination or are the Jayplay editors just obsessed with sex? Every single issue, sex, sex, sex. Seriously, y'all. Go out, get a date. A good one.
It won't let me log into Facebook and I'm freaking out.
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medal because of the time, energy, dedication, and physical, mental, and emotional agony that accompanies overcoming a physical disability in order to compete on the international level.
The Facebook is a self-indulgent popularity contest. It's ridiculous.
Why buy toilet paper when the Kansan's free?
四
I just saw a guy wearing shorts and flip-flops. It's 27 degrees and he's walking around on campus with shorts and flip-flops. Does anybody else see something wrong with that?
Ever since you ran an article on The Facebook, the site has crashed and now none of us can get on. I don't want to live in a world without Facebook.
Good to see Mrs. E's helping us grow up to be responsible adults by having Play-Doh Dav.
medal because of the time, energy, dedication, and physical, mental, and emotional agony that accompanies overcoming a physical disability in order to compete on the international level.
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Did anyone else notice the St. Joseph masc
cot really sucks?
Seriously, I don't understand why we have to make an appointment for classes we're gonna pay for. I just don't understand.
The enrollment process here at KU sucks so bad that I really think about switching schools just because of the enrollment process.
medal because of the time, energy, dedication, and physical, mental, and emotional agony that accompanies overcoming a physical disability in order to compete on the international level.
If you want to break up with your boyfriend and you don't really know how, can you go to the Free for All?
medal because of the time, energy, dedication, and physical, mental, and emotional agony that accompanies overcoming a physical disability in order to compete on the international level.
All I have to say is this week of school is an absolutely huge grizzly bear and I mean a grizzly bear and I don't even want to know what's in store for next week. Screw the end of the semester!
This is for all the girls wearing those Ugg boots. Now, it is cold and snowy, so you're allowed to wear the Ugg boots. If you wore them during the summer, I hope you know how stupid you look.
medal because of the time, energy, dedication, and physical, mental, and emotional agony that accompanies overcoming a physical disability in order to compete on the international level.
Hey, boy who said that Ugg boots are ugly:
just wanted you to know that I saw your girlfriend wearing them yesterday, so what does that make her?
medal because of the time, energy, dedication, and physical, mental, and emotional agony that accompanies overcoming a physical disability in order to compete on the international level.
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Have you heard the now 2Pac song featuring Elton John? Once again, my two favorite worlds of classic '80s rock and gangsta rap collide. It's awesome.
Just a quick memo from super Jayhawk fan to all the freshmen. You don't sit down during time-outs at the basketball game, what's up with that?
medal because of the time, energy, dedication, and physical, mental, and emotional agony that accompanies overcoming a physical disability in order to compete on the international level.
Hey, how come all the people in the Disney movies...there's no black people? They have Indians and Chinese and lots of white peo- but no black people
Two months ago, my roommate lost her KUID. Today, she found it in the Kleenex box.
"Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" is not the question. The real question is "Who Doesn't Want to be a Millionaire?"
A Christmas tree just ate my apartment.
medal because of the time, energy, dedication, and physical, mental, and emotional agony that accompanies overcoming a physical disability in order to compete on the international level.
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Hallelujahl The Facebook is back!
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You know what's weird? Cinnamon can be either spicy hot or sugary sweet. Cinnamon the food of America.
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STINSON'S VIEW
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One day, Bush and Cheney walked into a bar for dinner. The waitress walks up to them and asks if she could take their order. Bush leans in and says, "Honey, can I have a quickie?" The waitress is appalled and storms away. Cheney leans in and says, "Bush, it's pronounced 'quiche,'"
Zach Stinson/ Kansan
Paralympic medal invaluable
All too often, we fail to recognize the small miracles taking place around us. In particular, we forget about the miracles that must take place for people with disabilities to achieve what are, to us, very ordinary and common feats. And we fail to give those people the recognition and praise they deserve.
NOT UNHEARD OF
For example, a Canadian woman, Chantal Petitclerc, who uses a wheelchair, recently won five gold medals at the 2004 Athens Paralympic Games. She also broke three world records and, because of her, Canada's national anthem was played at the Athens Olympic Stadium for the only time throughout the entire Olympics or Paralympics Games.
Petitclerc returned home to Canada a heroine. However, she found herself sharing the title of Canadian track athlete of the year with a disability-impaired athlete who had failed to win any medals at the Olympics.
Controversy erupted among both people with and without disabilities over the perceived slight to Petitclerc's achievements.
"The controversy crystallizes an issue that has long lurked under the surface but is rarely debated: Is a Paralympic medal worth the same as an Olympic medal? How do you compare them?" Randy Starkman wrote last week in an editorial in the Toronto Star.
TARA SHUPNER
opinion@kansan.com
A Paralympic medal should be considered worth more than an Olympic
Athletes without disabilities need only train physically and mentally. They do not have to deal with the added stress of reconditioning years of a socially imposed stigma that they cannot succeed in athletics if they are disabled. They do not have to struggle to find money or obtain sponsorships from companies who prefer to give their money to big-name athletes without disabilities.
But that's only a tiny portion of the bigger picture.
People with disabilities everywhere struggle against the concept that their achievements are of lesser value than those of people without disabilities.
People cheer when a high school football player scores a touchdown. Who cheers when a child with cerebral palsy, after months of physical therapy,
is able to pick up a football for the first time?
People give a standing ovation after a soloist completes an aria. Who cheers when a child who has never heard a single sound, after years of speech therapy, says "mother" for the first time?
People flock to bookstores and give rave reviews for the latest bestselling novel. Who notices when a child with Down's syndrome writes his own name for the first time?
People gasp when a NFL player is brutally tackled, but who, other than a doting parent, notices when a blind child walks into a wall while learning how to use a cane?
A runner trains for months for a marathon. But children with disabilities often go to therapy for hours everyday, for years, just to be able to walk, read, write, speak, hear, and do many other things we all take for granted.
Every child with a disability has a marathon to train for. Every adult with a disability has gone through years of training to get to where they are now. They all deserve as much recognition as Olympic athletes. They certainly have invested as much work, energy, perseverance, and dedication as the most successful athlete in the world.
Shupper is a lenexa senior in journalism and English. She is deaf.
Ponderings leave much to be done
As the columns have accumulated I have had many ideas, arguments and questions that I could not fit into any one particular story, so I am going to dump them all here in a end of the year things to think about column. Eniow.
Those opposed to gay marriage seem to use many of the same arguments that those opposed to interracial marriage utilized forty years ago. Maybe the sanctity of marriage is threatened by the 18 television shows that have turned marriage into a game show contest.
According to an October study by the Pew Hispanic Center the average white family had a net worth of $88,651 which is 11 times greater than Hispanic families ($7,932) and 14 times greater than black families ($5,988). It appears that the effects of racism are alive and well in America.
COMMENTARY
BLAKE SWENSON opinion@kansan.com
I was watching an episode of Frontline the other day about marketing and they showed a focus group for white bread. They asked a man how he felt when he ate white bread, whether he was lonely, depressed, satisfied, happy. It is now known how people feel when they eat Wonder bread but I am still sure that the government has not figured out a way to manipulate us into an unnecessary war.
Why do we always lead ourselves into war? We know it does not end well and usually does not solve the problem. We are taught from a young age by parents, teachers, coaches, etc. that violence is not the answer and you even get in trouble if you do fight. Yet whenever there is a choice between violence and nonviolence our government chooses violence, why? Sociologists tell us that violence just perpetuates violence, why has America not paid attention.
GO
1 often wonder if America is now exporting its racism by ignoring the growing problems in Africa of civil war, AIDS and genocide.
CONTI
Osama bin Laden said in his last tape that he bombed America because of our nation's attack on Lebanon in 1982, yet it did not get any television
Sh to pe be n when hour job a need
$S_{i}$ er w for h to t onlv
coverage. That is a more tangible reason than we gave for attacking Iraq and it had nothing to do with our way of life or democracy, like President Bush had told us.
What is happening in Russia? Why is President Bush allying himself so closely to his buddy Vlad when he is dismantling the democracy that Reagan and George H.W. Bush helped to create? This seems to be a bit contradictory to our policy of pro democracy everywhere else. It would be ironic if President Bush's legacy is allowing Russia to turn back into a dictatorship.
Crazy year-end prediction: This time next year we will be at war with Iran. I can't wait to get my draft card in the mail.
This is a small sample of what we have to look forward to for the next four years. It is clear why it is more important than ever for us to stand together and fight for the most important lines in the pledge of Allegiance, "With Liberty and Justice for All."
And always remember what Ghandi told us, "We must become the change we want to see."
Swenson is a Topeka senior in political science.
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