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OPINION
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17,2004
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
EDITORIAL BOARD
www.kansan.com
Bush needs to clarify civil union position
Memorable lines from this past election include John Kerry's "I will hunt and kill the terrorists," Lynne Cheney's "He's a very, very bad man," in reference to Kerry, and of course President Bush's line "America knows where I stand."
One of Bush's key selling points one week ago was that President Bush was clear on every position that he took. There was no flip-flopping to be found in the Bush camp. Well, actually, Mr. President, we do not know where you stand on one of the hottest topics in the news: civil unions.
A week before the election, in an interview with ABC's news reporter Charlie Gibson, President Bush said he was open to the idea of civil unions for gay men and women. He said, "I don't think we should deny people rights to a civil union, a legal arrangement, if that's [what] a state chooses to do." When Gibson pointed out that this was a break with the Republican Party's platform, Bush embraced it. Gibson said, "So, the Republican platform on that point, as far as you're concerned, is wrong?" and Bush's response was "Right."
The leader of the Republican Party blatantly disagrees with the party's
platform. in an age when hot button issues such as abortion and gay marriage seem to define party membership, this piece of information would seem to be pretty important. All sorts of questions come to mind: What does President Bush mean by civil unions? What rights will be covered through a civil union? And will he actively support civil unions for gay couples?
Almost three weeks after the interview, these questions are still unanswered.
This issue is of great importance to both sides of the debate. Bush's base will likely have to rethink its support of Bush if he intends to actively support civil unions. On the other side, Bush might gain a whole lot of new friends on the left.
Bush needs to clearly tell the public what he meant in his Oct. 26 interview. This lack of information not only rests on Bush's shoulders, however. If Bush isn't answering the questions, it probably means the media is not asking the questions. The media needs to bring this issue to the forefront. The American public wants to know what the President thinks and what he's going to do about it.
Free for All
Call 864-0500
Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. Kansan editors reserve the right to omit comments. Slanderous and obscene statements will not be printed. Phone numbers of all incoming calls are recorded.
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Well, there's a car in the Elsworth parking lot that has a parking ticket on it, as well as a Hostess Twinkie on the hood. Just wanted to let you know, just reporting strangeness when I see it.
Yeah, the only reason that I put up more George Bush and John Kerry signs is because some crazed liberal ripped them down and when I put them back up, she wrote on them. I feel really bad for her, I mean, how would you like to be bitter for the next four years?
I just saw a kid riding a bike on Jayhawk Boulevard smoking a cigarette. Is that like an oxymoron or something?
Muck Fizzou? How about Guck Fenetics!
Come on, people, is it really that difficult to pick up the paper and put it in the trash?
Why is the campus covered in frickin' newspapers and frickin' inserts? Come on!
I just found out that New Edition has a new album coming out. Aren't they, like, 507?
I just read yesterday's *Free for All* because I was hungover and didn't make it to my classes and something I said was in the Free for All and I'm so happy. Thank you, *Free for All*. I love you.
Alexander the Great as Colin Ferrell? I think not.
The ice in Pizza Shuttle's drinks is incredible.
Does anyone agree on that?
own numbers, fails to provide funds for two-thirds of the people eligible for the grant. This has forced many students to take out loans, many of them unsubsidized, and more will follow. CLAS graduates rarely choose their majors for financial gain. Repaying loans is not easy.
I am currently driving through Iowa and to all the Jayhawks who are from Iowa; I am really, really sorry.
own numbers, fails to provide funds for two-thirds of the people eligible for the grant. This has forced many students to take out loans, many of them unsubsidized, and more will follow. CLAS graduates rarely choose their majors for financial gain. Repaying loans is not easy.
I have a parking pass because I live in a residence hall and I can't find a parking spot outside any of the residence halls. What makes these people think they can park in our parking lots when they bought a basketball ticket?
So, my roommate definitely just walked in on me for the first time this semester. I hate you, roommate.
own numbers, fails to provide funds for two-thirds of the people eligible for the grant. This has forced many students to take out loans, many of them unsubsidized, and more will follow. CLAS graduates rarely choose their majors for financial gain. Repaying loans is not easy.
What the shell is up with the KU Web site? It looks ugly. Change it back now.
own numbers, fails to provide funds for two-thirds of the people eligible for the grant. This has forced many students to take out loans, many of them unsubsidized, and more will follow. CLAS graduates rarely choose their majors for financial gain. Repaying loans is not easy.
Yeah, I just sat in line for an hour at Steak n Shake waiting for my free milkshake. Wow.
Dammit, ResNet. You screwed up the KU home page. How am I gonna get Enroll & Pay now?
--own numbers, fails to provide funds for two-thirds of the people eligible for the grant. This has forced many students to take out loans, many of them unsubsidized, and more will follow. CLAS graduates rarely choose their majors for financial gain. Repaying loans is not easy.
own numbers, fails to provide funds for two-thirds of the people eligible for the grant. This has forced many students to take out loans, many of them unsubsidized, and more will follow. CLAS graduates rarely choose their majors for financial gain. Repaying loans is not easy.
Why do girls wear bikini-like shorts when it's 35 degrees outside?
own numbers, fails to provide funds for two-thirds of the people eligible for the grant. This has forced many students to take out loans, many of them unsubsidized, and more will follow. CLAS graduates rarely choose their majors for financial gain. Repaying loans is not easy.
I'll give up procrastinating probably tomorrow.
You know what? They should start giving parking tickets to people who cannot park evenly between two white lines.
own numbers, fails to provide funds for two-thirds of the people eligible for the grant. This has forced many students to take out loans, many of them unsubsidized, and more will follow. CLAS graduates rarely choose their majors for financial gain. Repaying loans is not easy.
I was really excited about the Men of KU calendar and then I realized they were clothed. What a disappointment.
own numbers, fails to provide funds for two-thirds of the people eligible for the grant. This has forced many students to take out loans, many of them unsubsidized, and more will follow. CLAS graduates rarely choose their majors for financial gain. Repaying loans is not easy.
I just got my KU directory and there's coupon for the dentist for half price sedation. How awesome is that?
own numbers, fails to provide funds for two-thirds of the people eligible for the grant. This has forced many students to take out loans, many of them unsubsidized, and more will follow. CLAS graduates rarely choose their majors for financial gain. Repaying loans is not easy.
I think, for a class project, we should bury my archology teacher.
Yeah, can the students who left the game early on Sunday not redeem their basketball tickets so the real fans can get theirs? Thank you.
OK, so I can say that every road to McColm right now is closed and I'm not very happy about that? Dare I say it? I hate KU basketball.
own numbers, fails to provide funds for two-thirds of the people eligible for the grant. This has forced many students to take out loans, many of them unsubsidized, and more will follow. CLAS graduates rarely choose their majors for financial gain. Repaying loans is not easy.
own numbers, fails to provide funds for two-thirds of the people eligible for the grant. This has forced many students to take out loans, many of them unsubsidized, and more will follow. CLAS graduates rarely choose their majors for financial gain. Repaying loans is not easy.
Does anybody else thinks Aaron Miles looks a little like Bill Cosby?
Shame on us for playing well enough to almost beat Texas and keep the Big 12 from making $1 million off of them.
Yeah, we just decided that Aaron Miles needs to bring back the headband and lose the T-shirt. Not worth it.
STAYSKAL'S VIEW
For the record, Mark Mangino is 100 percent correct and he should not have had to apologize for his comments.
own numbers, fails to provide funds for two-thirds of the people eligible for the grant. This has forced many students to take out loans, many of them unsubsidized, and more will follow. CLAS graduates rarely choose their majors for financial gain. Repaying loans is not easy.
own numbers, fails to provide funds for two-thirds of the people eligible for the grant. This has forced many students to take out loans, many of them unsubsidized, and more will follow. CLAS graduates rarely choose their majors for financial gain. Repaying loans is not easy.
Mangino, why did you apologize? We all could see you as B.C.S., more like B.S.
own numbers, fails to provide funds for two-thirds of the people eligible for the grant. This has forced many students to take out loans, many of them unsubsidized, and more will follow. CLAS graduates rarely choose their majors for financial gain. Repaying loans is not easy.
We're gonna beat Texasal We're gonna beat
Texasal 0, wait. Nevermind, just kidding.
Thank God we still booze when they losel
Yeah!
Lew Perkins, go back to Connecticut. Now.
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Wayne Stayskaal/KRT CAMPUS
Everyone has stake in tuition hike
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences wants to raise your tuition. This increase is in addition to the University-wide tuition hike. The increase entails a $30-per-credit-hour fee for all classes in the college, which will be used to fund building and remodeling projects. This affects every student on campus, regardless of major, because every student must take CLAS courses. It may seem small: a mere $30 an hour to be phased in over three years. By the end of the three years, however, a student who enrolls in 15 hours each semester will owe an extra $900 per year, not including other tuition increases, unfortunately, that is just the tip of the iceberg.
GUEST COLUMN
JENNIFER FOSTER & GALEN
TURNER
opinion@kansan.com
This plan will set a precedent with the Legislature. The members of the Legislature have said and shown by their votes that they are ready, willing and able to slash the amount of money allocated to the University. We must not imply that students can be used as a source for funding construction. This process will take money from the entire University, making all the schools raise their fees; tuition will continue to skrocket.
Moreover, this plan will price students out. The University-wide tuition hike has already caused problems, and this fee will only squeeze students more. Administrators have proposed that 20 percent of the funds collected be used for need-based aid, but this program is modeled after the University Tuition Grant that, according to the Office of Financial Aid's
The debate about the increase has largely ignored these issues. The students who stand to suffer the most cannot participate in meetings or advisery boards because they must work to eat and pay rent. As of now, the "voice of the students" is represented by student senators and others who can afford to spend their college careers in meetings. Most do not lack money, and do not understand lacking money.
One argument supporting the proposed benefits is increased accessibility for the physically challenged. While this is valuable and needed, it is a matter of state law. There are many sources of money that can provide this service. However, the current drawings — no architectural plans exist yet — have
answered the accessibility issue with the proposed construction of large elevated tubes. There are simpler, cheaper and better ways of fixing the problem, and better ways to fund it.
The advocates of this plan also argue it would attract new faculty. While this is possibly true for the physics and chemistry departments, it is not true for the majority of liberal arts departments. The "if you build it, they will come," theory does not work in the real world.
Wescoe's ugliness has yet to ruin anyone's education. While tempting, these improvements are not worth the financial burden on students. The lab sciences need new facilities, but another way to provide them must be found.
So far, student concerns have been, at best, grudgingly acknowledged, but mostly rebuffed. At current, it appears that the plans are going to be taken to the Board of Regents for approval with or without student consent, or possibly with only the unrepresentative rubberstamp of Student Senate.
Need must be differentiated from want. A lack of capital means we must spend thoughtfully and sparingly. Tuition should not be the initial source of funding. Only after all other sources are exhausted would it be acceptable for a small student fee to be added as a supplement. Come to the discussion at 6 p.m. Thursday in 1001 Malott Hall. Speak your mind.
Galen Turner is a Lawrence graduate student in Bellinique Studies.
Jennifer Foster is a Merriam graduate student in religious studies.
NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
Opinioneditorsresign
Kansan readers:
The Kansan's Oct. 27 opinion page, which featured local election endorsements, relied too heavily upon previously published material in the Lawrence Journal-World. In one case material published in the Journal-World appeared in the Kansan verbatim and without attribution.
As a result, effective Nov. 11 at 5 p.m., I accepted the resignations of the Kansan's co-opinoin editors, Anna Clovis and Samia Khan. In resigning Clovis and Khan have accepted responsibility.
For the remainder of the semester, Louise Stauffer and Stephanie Lovett have assumed the positions of co-opinion editors.
The Kansan's policy is that all published material in the paper is original unless otherwise attributed. These standards were not met and the Kansan regrets this incident and has taken steps to ensure it will not happen again.
Henry C. Jackson, editor
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
It's a fact that society has been constructed based on class, race and gender and not always on merit. Although people like you love to think that the starting line is the same for everybody, it's not. Where was the talk of the poor conditions of inner city schools and the decaying communities that surround them in your article?
Columnist ignores racial inequality rooted in society
Every time a white person implies that they have been the victim of racism because of the color of their skin I can't help but chuckle. Please, Arrah Nielsen, whites enjoy the ultimate privilege of being in charge; we're the folks that get to make all the rules.
David Barrett
Carbondale III. junior in sociology
Shouldn't White America be held accountable for the oppression and racism that we have inflicted on minorities over the last 350 years? Oh wait I think I hear your next column calling: "Don't Blame Me, Blame My White Ancestors!"
You seem to neglect the fact that these problems are part of a greater cycle of poverty and racism. Although it is ultimately up to individuals to decide if they will break out of this cycle sometimes the economic and educational opportunities simply don't exist. Working at McDonald's for minimum wage is hardly going to pay the bills let alone allow for savings.
Donovan Atkinson and Andrew Vaupel
864-4810 or hjackson@kansan.com
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