OPINION
TUESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2004
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
www.kansan.com
EDITORIAL
Calendar,selection process lacks distinction
A calendar that displays women of distinction is a noble idea. Yet the KU Women of Distinction calendar seems to have been created in order to combat the annual Women of KU calendar. The idea was partly spurred from a negative view of another calendar instead of simply a positive idea to recognize outstanding students and faculty. Marci Deuth, a senior selected to be in the latest Women of Distinction calendar, said that it was more than just a response to the Women of KU calendar.
"I think it's more of a response to the images of women we see in media in general," Deuth said.
While some object to the Women of KU calendar, at least all KU women have the opportunity to apply. The women go through an interview process that is open to everyone and widely advertised. How women become official "women of distinction" at the University is a mystery. The selection process for the calendar is not widely known. In fact, Vimbayi Kajese, Harare, Zimbabwe senior, doesn't know why or how she was selected to be in last year's Women of Distinction calendar.
Deuth said women are nominated to be a part of the calendar by faculty, other students, or self-nomination. Deuth found out about the opportunity from an e-mail sent to the Student Senate list serve. That's great for student senators, but what about the rest of the student body?
If the women of distinction are to be found on campus, everyone should be given a fair opportunity to be in the calendar or to nominate someone else. Students should question how it is decided who will be in the calendar out of all the other women on campus. For a true calendar depicting women of distinction in all arenas of university life, more than a mystery committee needs to be involved in the selection.
Women of distinction deserve to be recognized and the University is lucky to have many thriving on campus. However, a piece of paper doesn't do these outstanding women justice. The Women of Distinction calendar can only recognize a few each year. While 5,000 copies of the January 2004 calendar were printed, in August 2004 there were still copies available in addition to the copies of the latest Women of Distinction calendar.
women of Distinction When all 5,000 copies are not picked up on a campus with 27,800 students and more than 2,000 faculty members, the calendar is not impacting anywhere near the students it should. The University should think of better ways to honor women of distinction. Maybe the money could be better spent if it were given as scholarships or grants to these women. Putting pictures on pieces of paper that people don't pick up is doing more of a disservice than helping these women become distinct in their pursuits.
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Boys, I stole your deer. I gave it back. You might have his body, but I have his heart.
is Kansas City. You're making us real Kansas Citians look bad.
A word of advice to all the Overland Park,
Shawnee, Rowland Park, Lenexa, and pretty
much all the Johnson County kids; when
someone asks you where you're from, do not
say Kansas City. Overland Park is not Kansas
City. Lenexa is not Kansas City. Kansas City
Wait, could it be? It is! It's Snake Man walking by Wescoe Beach and he's with a woman Could there be a Snake Woman? I think so!
--is Kansas City. You're making us real Kansas Citians look bad.
Arrah Nielson's column totally rocked.
Dude, I'm so addicted to the "Free for All." Every time I see something I say in print, I feel this little orgasm in the corner of my brain
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What's with all these buses around campus that just sit there, running for like half an hour in a parking lot? I mean who pays for that?
So, earlier this week, I saw a girl in a Mizzou shirt and then I saw another girl in a K-State shirt. Somebody needs to take those girls shopping so they can get decent clothes.
It's ridiculous when it's so humid, you get in your car and your glasses steam over.
I have two pat frogs named Otis and Milo.
Milo is the fat one.
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I'd like to thank the city of Lawrence for not fixing the pothole that I ran into, which caused my car to go into the mechanic shop, which caused a dirty mechanic to hit on me, which caused me to not have a car for class, so then I had to walk from 9th and Iowa because I cannot park in the parking lot without a parking permit. Way to go, Lawrence!
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Kansas newroom
111 Stauffer-Flint
Freshman label attracts attention
It is as if they are wearing bright neon labels on their faces reading: FRESHMAN. During my first night out as an upperclassman, I got a fascinating glimpse of how excessive the maddening habits of freshman girls really are. Yet, how strangely and strongly attractive they are to guys.
GUYS & GALS
The signs of a stereotypical freshman female can be seen all around: skirts so short and tops so low-cut they could be cited for indecent exposure; noticeable experimentation to find out how far they can push their new-found drinking limits; and the facts that they just spilled their drinks on you and are obviously struggling to stay standing on their stiletto heels. They are easy to spot, and as the incoming classes become increasingly larger, it seems they are everywhere in masses.
they are everywhere I have been that girl in shiny stilettoes, embracing nearly every freshman stereotype my first year. But after a few years getting slightly older and wiser, you see your perspective changes.
ASHLEY SMITH
opinion@kansan.com
in warranted and extreme.
While it is a societal standard that
I am not a guy, but the appeal of someone naive and young is understandable — not to mention that their tiny high school figures are not yet ruined by dorm food and binge drinking — but based on the behavior of men around them, targeting these girls is almost an obsession for some. The attention girls receive just for having freshman status is unwarranted and extreme.
older men may date younger women, the reverse is controversial. Think about it: You would not look twice at a freshman girl dating a senior guy, but the opposite would catch your eye.
for the rest of us non-freshmen, it seems we are missing some invisible vibe we once had. If we are in comparable or better physical shape, wearing clothing of equal appeal, but have realized our liquor limit, what is missing? Why do we suddenly feel like outcasts in places we used to fit so well?
in places we used to meet The mysterious appeal runs deeper than a certain look. It is more about attitude and a developed level of sensibility.
Older girls have been through the scene, played the games and seen the outcomes first hand. They are a challenge to men because they now hold higher standards than their predecessors.
My male peers say guys do not like to work hard at anything on weekends. They think simply and systematically: "I
do not want to go home alone, therefore I will pick a non-complex target."
This may seem like a fantastic temporary fix, but in less than 24 hours clarity may show both parties in a different light.
According to the Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy, "The truth is there are fewer 'right men' around these days—in part because of the ways women themselves have compromised their natural modesty and the inmost promptings of their hearts. Today's young woman is continually tempted to compromise her ultimate happiness for the temporary attention of an undependable male on his terms."
tble male on his terms. Thus, unless you are satisfied with unfulfilling and meaningless relationships, a self-respecting woman should seek a different approach.
If you on the lookout for Mr. Right, you are far more likely to find Mr. Right-Now in a bar. Should you be so lucky, first impressions are permanent. With your attire and way you carry yourself, you must strike a carefully balanced appeal with men. While you want to look flattering and beautiful, you must also appear respectable. A rule for assuring that you carry yourself with class: If you would not meet his mother in what you are wearing, the odds are you never will.
Smith is a Tulsa, Okla., junior in journalism.
City's ban should go up in smoke
ARRAH NIELSEN opinion@kansan.com
FRESH ARRAH
I'm a non-smoker, but I have fond childhood memories of sitting in the smoking section at my brother's Little League games with a pack of candy cigarettes, mimicking the smokers sitting around me.
cerned. "Since when to you have a right to make other people breath toxic smoke?" asked Dennis Highberger of the Lawrence City Commission in the Aug. 16 edition of The University Daily Kansan. Well Dennis, since when is it compulsory to frequent or work in a smoking establishment?
around me.
Naturally, when I heard about the Lawrence smoking ban I was concerned.
TUESD
CIW
The hysteria over secondhand smoke is based on emotion not science. In 2002, the American Journal of Epidemiology published a study conducted by the School of Public Health-WHO Collaborating Center in Germany The 37-year study tracked 20,551 airline attendants exposed to secondhand smoke on airplanes for an average of 12 years.
CONTINUE
were c spring.
seem to contribute to the mortality of airline cabin attendants.
Similarly, a secondhand smoke study of 118,094 adults followed for 39 years was published in the 2003 British Journal of Medicine and concluded that "the results do not support a causal relationship between environmental tobacco smoke and tobacco related mortality."
A more scientific approach than an all-out ban would have been installing air filters - highly effective at removing cigarette smoke. But what do expect from a city commission that has a formerly pony-tailed leftover hippie?
The study concluded that occupational causes including tobacco smoke don't
If the ban hurts business, bar and restaurant owners will hire fewer employees. Journalists write about laidoff workers but not about workers who were never hired in the first place because of smoking bans or similarly intrusive measures embraced by the deep thinkers of the commission.
smoke and tobacco to raise the Clean Air Lawrence folks insist the ban won't hurt business because it will bring in nonsmokers. City proprietors have a better idea of what is good for their business than third party busybodies such as ban advocates who will not take a financial hit if they are wrong.
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No one drives a car into a tree or picks up a case of the clap because they smoke cigarettes. The same cannot be said of alcohol. As vices go, smoking is an illogical scapegoat.
Anyone with an I.Q. above room temperature knows smoking can be harmful. But as marijuana legalization activist Peter McWilliams said, "There's a difference between what wise people do and what the law should say."
Smokers pay taxes on the cigarettes pay higher health insurance premiums and collect less in Social Security and Medicare benefits because they tend to die sooner. If adults want to assume the costs of their smoking habits, they should be allowed to.
Saturated fat and lack of sleep contribute to poor health. Should we down Burrito King and have commissioners swing by the residence halls at night to ensure all the college kids are in their jammies by 9 p.m.? There's no logical stopping point when you get into the business of protecting people from themselves.
serves.
Instead of commission-sponsored coercion, how about a policy respecting personal freedom and responsibility and the rights of private business owners? I'll smoke to that.
Nielsen is an Andover senior in anthropology and history.
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