OPINION
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 5.2004
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
www.kansan.com
EDITORIAL BOARD
Rec center report card Mission needs attention
As if the hills aren't enough, students have filled up the one-year-old Student Recreation Fitness Center, working to improve their health. Based on attendance, the student-financed recreation center has been a huge success, a visible reminder that fee hikes go somewhere. Yet one year into the University's experience with the new recreation center, gaps have been revealed that need to be filled.
The primary problem is the size of the recreation center. Plans drastically underestimated students' enthusiasm for fitness and as a result students often wait in long lines to use the facilities and machines for which they paid. Fortunately, the coming expansion addresses this lack of foresight.
A problem also reaches in the other direction. Not all students have been enfranchised by the center. Its justification, to promote healthy lifestyles at the University, has gone largely unfulfilled because the recreation center is filled with people who were already health enthusiasts.
KU FIT classes and other free services offered by the recreation center that could entice more students are being underutilized, especially those on the exercise and health-awareness periphery. Students still have not heard of the classes offered or have schedules that do not fit the meager offerings.
As the recreation center expands its mission should be modified to better reflect the needs of the entire fee-paying student body. Greater outreach and advertising could attract students who typically avoid undertaking any strenuous physical activity in an average week, helping their long-term health habits as a result.
At the end of this first year it is clear that the new center is a colossal improvement over Robinson Center. The center still needs to address its problems and fulfill its ideal mission to enhance the lives and well-being of all of the students paying fees toward it, not just the health nuts.
For the successes, but minding the failures, in it's first year, we grade the center B+.
Free for All
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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.
For more comments, go to www.kansan.com.
yeah, I think I got a candidate for the worst day ever. I failed my gateway test, I think my girlfriend's gonna break up with me, and on my walk home to Lewis, I saw a dead squirrel. I think I'm gonna take a nap. Later.
Hey, it's my birthday and I'm eating cake for breakfast. Yeah, me.
Yeah, I just shut my freakin' cell phone in my car hood. That really sucks.
Oh my god, there's some missionaries headed my way. Please Lord, save me from the missionaries.
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Today's my lucky day. I parked in front of the Burge meter and I have not gotten a parking ticket. Whoo!
yeah, I think I got a candidate for the worst day ever. I failed my gateway test, I think my girlfriend's gonna break up with me, and on my walk home to Lewis, I saw a dead squirrel. I think I'm gonna take a nap. Later.
I'd like to make a correction to the Free for All. Can I do that? Well, I said I had a sunburned face, not have a sideburned face. Thanks.
ing anyone else with the same attitude again.
If you come in to class late, don't sit by me and try to copy my notes over my shoulder.
I must be the only KU student who's never done a crossword puzzle in class and this is my third year here. Seriously, people. Stay home if you're gonna do those in class.
ing anyone else with the same attitude again.
I haven't called the Free for All in a year until today, and this is the third time I called in the last hour. I forgot how addicting this is.
ing anyone else with the same attitude again.
STAYSKAL'S VIEW
Does it seem like Arrah Nielsen and Cartman from South Park are very similar? They both love to show poor people what they don't have and both hate hippies.
ing anyone else with the same attitude again.
Why is John Kerry not looking in the camera?
So, I'm watching the presidential debate right now, and I keep noticing that John Kerry and George Bush are writing something or drawing something. And my roommate and I have a theory on this. We think they're drawing pictures on how they think they're gonna kill the other one. Die, Bush! Die!
Men, George is kicking some major butt tonight. Eat that, Senator Kerry.
OK, what is freedom? If that's a major political concern, then shouldn't it be defined?
ing anyone else with the same attitude again.
Kerry is just waxing Bush.
TALK TO US
Henry C. Jackson
editor
964-4810 or hjackson@kansan.com
Jenny Weaver sales and marketing adviser 864-7688 or jweaver@kansan.com
Donovan Attkinson and Andrew Vaupel
managing editors
864-4810 or datkinson@kanse.com and
avupek@kanse.com
Anna Clovis and Samia Khan opinion editors 884-4924 or opinion kansan.com
Justin Roberts business manager 864-4368 or advertising@kansan.com
Malcolm Gibson
general manager and news adviser
884-7697 or mglibson@kansan.com
Malcolm Gihens
Stephanie Graham
retail sales manager
884-4358 or advertising@kensan.com
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
Laura Rose Barr, Ty Ryan Beaver, Ganna Anna Gregory, Jack Henry-Rhoads, Kately Hullowell, Nate Karlin, Jay Kilmian, Stephanie Lovett, Taylor Prior, Noel Rasor, Ryan Scarrow, John Tran, Anne Weltmer and Michelle Wood
For any questions, call Anne Clovis or Samia Khan at 864-4924 or e-mail at bpionn@kansan.com. General questions should be directed to the editor at editor@kansan.com.
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111 Stauffer-Flint
Disabled employees face barriers
NOT UNHEARD OF
This October, the nation observes National Disability Employment Awareness Month as part of the government's effort to increase the awareness of employers and potential employees with disabilities. The University should make every effort to participate in this effort to increase awareness and prevent workplace discrimination on campus and in Lawrence.
The past ten years have brought many improvements for people with disabilities. More people with disabilities are employed than five or 10 years ago. Still, attitudes of co-workers can be a major barrier to employment for people with disabilities.
Nearly everyone with some form of disability, particularly those with sensory and mobility disabilities, has at least one story of experiencing discrimination in the workplace.
Last summer, I applied for a job as a cashier at a local grocery store where I had worked in high school. Much to my surprise, the personnel manager offered me a job as a grocery sacker. When I asked why she didn't hire me as a cashier, she cited concerns about my ability to interact with customers and having to find an interpreter for the training sessions.
Even after I reminded her that I had worked as a cashier at the same store and would not need training, she refused to consider giving me the cashier position and repeated the sacker offer. I walked away and chose not to work that summer than risk encountering anyone else with the same attitude again.
TARA SCHUPNER opinion@kansan.com
employers, when hiring and firing, often discriminate against people with disabilities due to concerns about their ability to perform physical tasks or interact with other people. Some employers also discriminate by failing to make the workplace fully accessible for employees with any kind of disability.
This discrimination obviously has detrimental effects on people with disabilities as they strive to find jobs and make enough money to support themselves.
People with disabilities have a much lower employment rate than those without disabilities. The United States Census reported that, in 1995, 82 percent of Americans without disabilities were employed. The numbers drop for people with disabilities: 77 percent with nonsevere disabilities and only 26 percent with severe disabilities are employed.
People with disabilities also earn less than people without disabilities. Men without disabilities earned about
$2,190 per month in 1995; men with nonsevere disabilities, $1,857; and men with severe disabilities, $1,262. The figures drop for women too: $1,470 per month for women without disabilities, $1,200 for women with nonsevere disabilities, and $1,000 for women with severe disabilities.
Attitudes of employers and co-workers are a major barrier to people with disabilities, according to the National Health Interview Survey, conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor. In the private sector, 22 percent of people with disabilities cited attitudes as a barrier. In the public sector, the percentage increases to 43 percent.
We all, as current or future employers and co-workers of people with disabilities, owe it to them and to ourselves to be open-minded about their talents and capabilities. They could surprise you and even teach you many lessons.
Before you decide that someone can't do a job because of their disability, stop and think about the possibility that you may be preventing that person from achieving his full potential. With examples like these people, who knows what that full potential may be.
Take for example a few people with disabilities who made their mark on the world: Walt Disney, Stevie Wonder, Helen Keller, John Updike, Stephen Hawking, Michael J. Fox, Christopher Reeve and even Franklin Delanor Roosevelt.
Schupner is a Lenox senior in journalism and English. She is deaf.
Unnecessary photograph depicted animal cruelty
Dear editors,
I am writing in response to the photograph that appeared on the front page of the Sept. 30 edition of the Kansan. The photo, titled "Gator-aid", featured a man holding a small mouse directly above the gaping mouth of his pet caiman.
I doubt that I stand alone in feeling emotionally disturbed at this site. This is not what occurs in nature. In nature every creature has a chance. It is wrong to "bait" an animal, and even worse to subject others to unavoidable viewing of this disgusting display of human cruelty.
I see no need to place a large picture of a helpless creature struggling for its last seconds of life on the front page of the paper.
There is no difference between placing this picture on the front page and placing a photograph of a hostage just before being beheaded on it.
This picture was useless as well as tasteless.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Kisha Steineger Kansas City, Kan., senior
Voters should search for truth before presidential election
Dear editors,
This letter is to encourage all Americans to become informed on the issues and the candidates before casting their votes on Nov. 2.
Our right to choose those who govern us goes to the essence of being an American.
Too many people, however, are choosing who they will vote for, and forming their opinions on the issues, without taking the time to thoughtfully consider all of the relevant facts and circumstances.
I urge all voters to avoid the party line, whichever party that may be, and take the time to inform themselves on the issues and the candidates.
Democrats and Republicans alike allow their political bias to rob them of the right to make informed decisions on Election Day.
TUE
Choose what you believe is the best for yourself and the country. Try
Resist the impulse to make snap judgments based on party propaganda.
Independently consider the facts and allow knowledge, not bias, to guide your choices.
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to find the truth on each issue and cast your ballot accordingly.
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Victor of presidential debate easily identified by viewers
Dear editors,
My informal interviews after the debate caught something the Kansan missed ("Debate shows clash of views" on Oct. 1). Everyone I spoke to had the same observation: that Kerry was answering the questions, while Bush was repeating the same phrases over and over.
For instance, Bush said that being President "is hard work" so often that I wondered if he doesn't find the job too hard. Maybe someone else could handle it better?
Joshua Rosenau Lawrence graduate student
The Kenyan welcome letters to the editors and guest columns submitted by students, faculty and alumni.
The Kansas reserves the right to edit, cut to length,
or reject all submissions.
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