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Kansan
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Thursday, September 30, 199°
Seth Jones / KANSAN
Editorials
NASA should share its wealth to help mend problems on Earth
NASA recently lost a $125 million probe that had been gathering information near Mars. This comes six years after NASA lost a similar Mars probe, which cost about $1 billion. This money could have spent to correct some major problems on Earth.
We do not discount the scientific contributions of space exploration or criticize NASA's human error, but we do believe much of NASA's budget could be better spent on the Earth.
Certainly, NASA's well-chronicled efforts have greatly improved the understanding of our solar system and should not be ignored. NASA's efforts also have created advancements on Earth, including improved
Lastest NASA blunder should give cause to rethink the our spending on space exploration
passenger planes, pacemakers and fire extinguishers.
The editorial board's position comes from the innumerable social and political problems in our own country and world. Hunger, homelessness, crime and a lack of education are a few of the societal ills that could be eased with money from NASA's budget.
to the aforementioned problems.
The value of conquering space is rendered fairly empty when compared
As a people, we should become far more adept at dealing with earthly problems before we attempt to solve those in space. We should not let the collective ego-rush or thrill experienced from being space explorers distract us from the suffering of fellow human beings. Our national greatness would be far better measured by the ability to fight poverty than our ability to reach other planets.
In the end, the knowledge gained through space research is outweighed by its huge cost in time and dollars.
This effort and money could be far better spent in the context of our collective, earth-bound, everyday lives.
Erik Goodman for the editorial board
More awards like ExCEL are needed
Campuswide recognition of student dedication and contribution to the University of Kansas and the Lawrence community is not given frequently enough. The ExCEL award, which stands for Excellence in Community, Education and Leadership, achieves the goal of student recognition.
This weekend two KU students will be honored with ExCEL awards during halftime of the homecoming football game. Brenda Chung, Belle Plaine junior, and Eric Rush, Topeka junior, are deserving of the award and are good examples of the qualities it embodies.
EXCEL is in its ninth year. The award includes a $500 scholarship financed by the Board of Class Officers. More important than the scholarship, however, is the prestige and deserved recognition.
Camille Payne, Student Union
Activities vice president for
Eric Rush and Brenda Chung are good examples of students who deserve recognition
University Relations and judging committee member, said the ExCEL award recognized students who made a difference.
"I instead of a popularity contest for a homecoming king and queen, it replaces that by honoring people who deserved to be honored for their outstanding commitment to the University and the Lawrence community," Payne said.
of membership development for SUA, a volunteer in Guatemala and a student representative for the Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center.
This year's winners set examples and inspired other students to get involved.
Rush's commitment to the community also is outstanding, Payne said. Rush has contributed more than 750 hours of community service at a veterans hospital, is a College of Liberal Arts and Science student senator and a National Merit Commended Scholar.
Chung demonstrated quality in every facet of her life, Payne said. She has been a site leader for alternative spring break, vice president
Chung and Rush are not the only students who deserve recognition. More awards such as the ExCEL awards should be imparted to spotlight remarkable student involvement. Recognizing student achievement during the homecoming football game is commendable, but there are too many other opportunities, like football and basketball game halftimes, where the opportunity to give student recognition is missed.
Katrina Hull for the editorial board
Allen has good character
Feedback
This is in response to Jason Franchuk's column in Monday's Kansas regarding Coach Terry Allen not being a good role model and his lackadaisical attitude, I like many Jayhawk fans, was disappointed by Saturday night's loss to San Diego State. Losing is never good for morale. However, winning is not the only basis on which a coach should be judged. This is especially true when you are referring to what type of role model a coach is for his/her players and for other students. I would like to explain what type of role model Coach Allen is for his players, other students and families of university students.
This weekend was Parents Day/Family Weekend at KU (not that you would know because the Kansan failed to cover an event that affected more than 600 families). One of the new events was a Sunday Brunch. Last
spring I invited Coach Allen to attend this brunch as an honored guest. He quickly responded, saying he would be happy to attend. After Saturday night's loss I没必要 sure if I would see Coach Allen at the brunch. After all, not showing up would be a way to avoid any further embarrassment and it would be the "lackadaisical" thing to do. At exactly 11:30 a.m. Coach Allen walked in to the Kansas Union Ballroom and did his best to keep his head high and even managed to smile. Dr. Bob Frederick put it best when he was speaking to the brunch crowd and told the following story:
"Last night after the game I talked with Coach Allen and told him that if he would not be able to make it to the brunch on Sunday that I would relay his regrets to the participants and organizers. Coach said, 'No, I'll be there.' This tells you what kind of man Terrell Allen is. It shows he cares about KU and more importantly cares about it's students."
cation and loyalty to KU is the kind of role model this University needs more of. I suppose his commitment to speaking at the Hawk Club was an example of a lackadaisical attitude? What about the hours of community service he performs without asking for anything in return?
A person that shows this type of dedi-
Attacking a coach's character when you are under-informed is, at best, irresponsible journalism and, at worst, sloppy, amateur and yellow. I am not making a judgment of your character, Jason, simply make a point that you should assess Coach Allen on his ability to coach, not whether he's a good role model. To take one game out of context and apply it to a man's character is unfair. Your job as sports columnist is to inform and be informed. Perhaps if you were, you would have an idea what kind of role model Terry Allen is.
Heidi Schrandt Lawrence Graduate Student
Perspective
Gorilla thumping aside apartment life is alright
Apartment living is an experience. One well worth partaking, despite the neighbors. This entry in my journal represents a typical day.
Wednesday, 07.13 hours. Awakened for the third day this week by the incessant coughing of the
emphysemic Oldsmobile in the parking lot. Why doesn't that girl get the old clunker fixed? Well, at least it's not the half-dozen or so car alarms heard at daybreak on Daisy Hill. Still, I won't be able to get back to sleep. Two perfectly good hours of sleep lost. .
Elizabeth
Peacock
columnist
opinion@kansan.com
07:35. After a solid twenty minutes of hacking and sputtering, she finally managed to get the piece of scrap-metal running, only to have it stall. It's alive; it's dead. Now alive; now dead. Living one minute.
then just another steel corpse. If she doesn't get that hunk of junk fixed soon, I swear I'm going to take a sledgehammer and put it out of its misery. Just try me.
07. 37. The engine's running and has left the building. The apartment complex is silent once again. Except for one of the 35-year-old bikers above us; he's taking his shower as usual. All I can hope for is that he doesn't use all the hot water.
0821. The Weather Channel forecasts light showers all day, with highs in the low seventies. Jennifer says I'm insane to walk to class every day. I'm sure to get a great big I-told you-so smile when I come home sick and soothed wet. It was so much easier when home was only a halfmile away, instead of two. Maybe I should get a bus pass.
14:32. Luckily, I didn't get caught in the rain—for once. I almost stepped on the "little rat" as I entered the building. The girl upstairs thinks her scrawny, hairless, freak-for-a dog is so cute. My rabbit back home could eat that thing for breakfast.
Management left another fluorescent flier between the doorknob and the jam. Our flier's twin sits in an identical spot on the door across the hall. I'll bet anyone it's still there tomorrow when I
leave for class. Does that guy actually live in his apartment, or is he just visiting?
22:00. The lamp from the living room produces enough light for me to study on the balcony. I thought that maybe the traffic outside would drown out the noise from upstairs, but it hasn't. Now I find myself eavesdropping on their conversation as they move onto the balcony above — something about Final Fantasy on Nintendo and who almost killed who in a game they played three weeks ago.
The announcement explains problems in the laundry room and claims that "the management is sorry for any inconveniences this may create." I haven't done laundry in more than two weeks out of sheer sloth, and now I'm going to have to get in my car and drive to a laundromat.
20:36. I'm studying for once, but the racket from upstairs keeps pulling me away from the books. Do they keep live gorillas up there or what? Either those middle-aged bikers are more than 300 pounds a piece or their mothers taught them to stomp when they walk. I just know that one of these days my worst nightmare will come true — sitting on the toilet, and one of them will come crashing through the ceiling, big and sweaty, and wearing way too much black leather. I hope it's not any time soon.
22:18. I move back inside as cigarette ash falls through the slats overhead and onto my stack of Xeroxed readings.
1704. My laundry's clean, which is more than I can say about the apartment downstairs. It seems the guy tried to cook for his girlfriend and ended up fumigating the place. Our neighbor's flier hasn't moved. No surprise there.
23:48. As I lay here I think— living in an apartment is different than the dorms. I'll give you that. It's quieter. The neighbors keep to themselves, if they show themselves at all. There's not a sense of community, at least not the kind we had at the residence hall last year. But, you know what, it's more real here. It may not always feel comfortable or safe. It may not always feel like home. But it is home, at least for now, and it'll only be as good as we make it.
Peacock is a Newark, Calif., junior in anthropology and political science.
Hey whipper-snappers, technology is overrated
This computer thing is getting out of control. Like many technology-wary folks, I have recently stepped boldly into the 1980s and accepted that computers will remain an essential component of life as we know it — probably far beyond the duration of my own existence. I have even come to embrace the enjoyable and convenient facets of the cyber-world such as e-mail, spellcheckers and Sheryl Crow Web sites. But as central processing units gain increased control of every area of the average human being's life — finances, education, communication, pornography
— someone needs to think about where to draw the line. Look at some of the contemporary trends in education.
During a recent family visit, my younger brother and I were looking through boxes of grade school mementos and awards. In my second grade pile, I found an already yellowed sheet of thick paper that read, in calligraphy, "For Outstanding Penmanship." My brother, who is a high school freshman, was perplexed. Apparently he never had devoted time to handwriting in his elementary schooling.
Sarah
smarsh
columnist
opinion@kansan.com
Alarmed, I contacted a number of Wichita grade schools. The resounding response to my concern was that, as emphasis on computer education increases, focus on such barbaric practices as handwriting has lessened. Remember asking, "Does it have to be in curvature?" Maybe pretty letters aren't as practical as typing skills, but I worry about putting so much trust in the capability of a machine that de-emphasizes human skills. ("Grandma, what's a pencil?" "Oh, sweetie-pie, that's what we wrote with back when I was just a little whisper-snapper.")
My journalism class depends largely on the utilization of computers. Our participation grades are greatly derived from our messages to the class listserv and grade-essential projects rely on Internet research and communication. Lecture outlines are
posted on the class Web site, and everything from weekly reading assignments to the class syllabus are there as well. In fact, students are discouraged from taking notes during the professor's lectures because, "it's on the Web site."
These things in and of themselves are not bad. The latter in particular has a seemingly considerable benefit: A student may spend class time thinking instead of racing a pen across a notebook. But many people simply remember key information better after writing it down. Isn't that why we take notes in the first place?
And while the class listserv provides a useful extension of class time, and Internet research provides countless sources for the up-to-date information a would-be journalist needs, these technological advancements threaten the tried-and-true formulas of a good old-fashioned class discussion and hours of research in the stacks at Watson Library ("Grandma, what's a whipseramper? My spell-checker can't find it.").
Not even my piano class is immune to chips, discs, programs, formats and other fun cyber-stuff. One of our first assignments was to format a disc for our electronic piano keyboards. Many of the songs we learn are required to be saved outside of class and then handed in on disc. Yes, this is convenient and kind of neat in a lot of ways, but is it really beneficial to the student?
I am not anti-computer. And the fact that I don't own one probably has something to do with my hesitance to comply with the movement to make computers an indispensable element of our education. Anyone who values a good discussion within the walls of a classroom or the smell of an old copy of Shakespeare's Complete Works would agree that a balance must be found between the scholastic methods of the computer age and all those successful ones that lay before it. With many universities
including the University of Kansas — considering policies for mandatory student ownership of computers, and dependence on PCs increasing every day, this balance will be hard to find.
Let us not forget that books and pencils need not be year-2000 compliant.
Smarsh is a Kingman junior in English.
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