Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY Kansan
Published daily since 1912
Julie Wood, Editor
Laura Roddy, Managing editor
Cory Graham, Managing editor
Tom Eblen, General manager, news adviser
Brandi Byram, Business manager
Shauntea Blue, Retail sales manager
Dan Simon, Sales and manager adviser
Scott Valler, Technology coordinator
Wednesday, September 1, 1999
Robert James Novak / KANSAN
Editorials
Kansan report card
Korb Maxwell, student body president, has declared that Student Senate has a $350,000 surplus.
This week's Pass/Fail attempts to provide some guidance for its appropriation.
PASS
24-hour library — Keeping Watson open
24/7 would do more than just keep the exhibitionists off the streets; it would give students a quiet place to study. Let's put the cash towards staffing the library, and spend the new $1 fee on books and subscriptions.
Service learning — This could be the
Senate's chance to leave something good in its wake. $150,000 could be the jump-start this
program needs to get off the ground. It's a gift that would keep on giving.
- One-year student fee reduction — If we split up the 150 grand, each student would get about five bucks each. Goodbye mac and cheese; hello Taco Tuesday!
FAIL
- Statues or memorials — The long battle for a new campus recreation center was a valiant one, but the campus isn't ready for a Kevin Yoder statue.
Bus shelters — Hmm, a place for Lawrence kids to smoke. Senate candidates to campaign and bars to advertise. Will there be room for bus riders? We doubt it.
- Student Senate office upgrades — We heard about the DVD players, and that's probably enough. A gold-plated gavel probably won't bring order to Senate meetings.
Diverse University attainable goal
If one fails to look closely, it may appear that the University of Kansas administration only desires non-white students if they can shoot a basketball. However, this is not the case. While 90 percent of the student body is currently European-American, the chancellor and administrators are making a sincere effort to diversify our campus. Their efforts will be a benefit to all concerned.
Only 47 percent of minorities are retained by the University each year, said Robert Page Jr., associate director of the Office of Multi-Cultural Affairs. This rate is dramatically lower than the retention rate of European-American students. Like other students, minority students often suffer from missing their families, lacking knowledge of the University's possibilities or not feeling
University's efforts, including Hawk Link, are commendable
comfortable in a college environment. But, some minorities also must adjust to being a minority after coming from a high school where they were in the majority.
To help ease these problems, the University has created Hawk Link. This program is designed to help retain students of color but will be available to all students. The program will aid students in navigating the University's vast network of resources, programs and people. Students will be shown leadership opportunities and given the opportunity to develop a relationship with faculty members.
University sponsors minority visits to campus. It also has representatives visit high schools made up primarily of minorities and places ads in target publications.
To recruit minority students, the
All of this is desirable. It will increase the value of a University of Kansas education. Minorities bring diverse perspectives, life-stories and ways of tackling life's problems. Also, in a country that is becoming increasingly multicultural, we will live in an unrepresentative and unrealistic environment without more minorities. The administration should continue to work at recruiting and retaining a greater number of minorities. The faculty and student body should strive to make the University a more minority-friendly place. This will prove to invigorate our place of learning.
Kansan staff
Erik Goodman for the editorial board
Chad Bettes . . . . .
News editors
Advertising managers
Becky LaBranch .Special sections
Thad Crane .Campus
Will Baxter .Regional
Jon Schlitt .National
Danny Pumpelly .Online sales
Micah Kaftiz .Marketing
Emily Knowles .Production
Jenny Weaver .Production
Matt Thomas .Creative
Kelly Heffernan .Classified
Juliana Moreira .Zone
Chad Hale .Zone
Brad Bolyard .Zone
Amy Miller .Zone
Broaden your mind: Today's quote
"Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens." —Jimi Hendrix
How to submit letters and guest columns
**Leters:** Should be double-spaced typed and fewer than 200 words. Letters must include the author's signature, name, address and telephone number plus class and hometown if a University student. Faculty or staff must identify their positions.
**Guest columns:** Should be double-spaced typed with fewer than 700 words. The writer must be willing to be photocarried for the column to run.
All letters and guest columns should be submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Chad Borsett or Seth Hoffman at 482-4924.
If you have general questions or comments, e-mail the page staff (opinion@kansan.com) or call 864-4924.
Perspective
Hot hall gets students hot under the collar
I write to you, gentle readers, from the fifth circle of Hell; a location that also goes by the name of McCollum Hall. The air conditioner was dead for five days, and the residents were dying by degrees. Exactly 95 degrees.
Early Friday, a iet of water vapor made hash
Loader columnist opinion at kansan.com
McCollum is a large concrete establishment with a lot of people living cheek to jowl in small, crowded rooms. The temperature outside was more than 90, and the humidity was thick enough to produce haze.
out of a transformer in the hall's basement, which was easily replaceable. The resulting surge also knocked out a motor, which was not.
McCollum Hall began to turn into an oven.
By Saturday, residents
slowly began to realize that the place was becoming a furnace. Howling in protest, dressed in undershirts and boxers and less reputable items of apparel, they ran down to the front desk to demand cold air.
They found a sign — "The air conditioner is broken. It will be repaired on Wednesday." And, beneath that — "The Big Mac is AWE-SOME!"
It is a testament to the character of the hall that no one manning the front desk was lynched.
An exodus began. It was now noticeably hotter outside the hall than inside; people went and bought fans by the truckload. The numerous signs telling people not to open the windows were ignored or defaced; the shutters flew open in an attempt to let some fresh air in. (Yes, the humid soup outside was fresh air in comparison to the fetid stuff circulating in the hall.) One sign had scrawled across it, "Keep 'em shut and BROIL!"
My refrigerator died at dawn. The heat was too much for it; it gave up the ghost and began to overheat to the point where you could fry an egg on it. Two people have complained to me that their computers had stopped working.
Night. Sleep was impossible; the closest anyone got was a sort of fitful marinading in their own sweat. Bugs, presumably looking for a chance to add to the misery, flew in through the gaping holes in the insect screens and began trying to make friends.
Sunday night, and mutiny is in the air. People have been stopping me in the halls, asking if I work for the *Kansan* and then begging me to do something. I sadly tell them that I ain't Walter
Cronkite but that I'll do my best.
The big question on everybody's mind can be summed up in a few words — who's the guy responsible for this, and when can I get a crack at him?
In the meantime, some students suffered expensive property damage, were forced to expend money to make their residence habitable, were living in the sort of environment that is conducive to illness and not conducive to study, and basically were made miserable.
No easy answer to that question, I'm afraid. I called Phil Garito, an official with student housing, to get the story on what was going on. He said that the replacement motor had been ordered on Friday and that it would hopefully arrive in Kansas City on Monday. He didn't know what sort of transport the motor was getting and said that he frankly didn't care as long as it got here.
Do the math. A part broke Friday morning. It took roughly five days to get the new motor in, and it took several more hours before the temperature returned to normal. That's a school week of sweltering heat.
Accidents happen. Machines break. That McCollum Hall should prove to be prone to mechanical failures shouldn't surprise anyone, especially anyone who's seen the elevators.
What surprises and dismays me is the utter lack of regard student housing showed towards its tenants in its response to the problem. Aside from the brief and mildly insulting message on the chalkboard downstairs, no one saw fit to inform the residents about what was going on, why it took so long, and what could have been done in the meantime. "They're just students; let 'em sweat." — that's the impression I got.
Last time I checked, FedEx still did next-day air delivery. Why on earth didn't the housing department make more of an effort to get the damn part here faster? Four to five days to make a delivery is the slow way; that motor should have arrived Monday at the latest. Yeah, it would have cost money. I'm out a few hundred for a refrigerator, and the folks who lost computers are out a thousand or so. We pay for livable residences; it is not too much to expect that money be spent to provide us with such. An ill friend of mine had to move out; fever in 95-degree heat is dangerous.
I'm angry. So are a lot of other people.I expect this sort of treatment from slumlords,not my university.
I don't want my money back. But an apology and a reliable air conditioner would be nice.
Loader is a Henderson, Nev., junior in journalism.
Salsa dance challenges Americans in Costa Rica
Watching Costa Ricans salia makes me sick with envy and wishing I wasn't club-footed on the dance floor. Not everyone here dances, but those who do move with a fluid grace and style that brings poetry to mind. It certainly had my traveling companions entrusted.
Two other students and I spent a weekend in the town of Puerto Jimenez, a one-and-a-half hour ferry ride across the gulf from our town. We had the good luck of running into some local guys at Donía Leta's, a beach-side hotel, bar and
sand volleyball hangout.
After some friendly 3 on 3 they invited us out on the town. That night I found myself sitting in the corner of El Rancho's back dancing room while the two women I came with danced away the night.
Sure, I'll join the crowd for some bass-heavy club hits, but with a partner, I'm paralyzed. Phil Collins and Genesis — you are my heroes. I can't dance. I felt better when some other enjs filtered in and sat on
Merkel-Hess columnist
opinion@kansan.com
the sidelines as the four women — two from the States, one European and one Costa Rican were twirled and swept around the room.
Earlier that afternoon, we'd been pointed in the direction of the sand volleyball by Jeff Lantz, an ex-Southern Californian who has lived in Puerto Jimenez for five years. He deals in real estate, problem solving for other ex-pats. And, with his partner Stig Hanson, he built the Iguana Lodge five kilometers outside of town on the white sand of Playa Platanares. Lantz's tan face, mustache and excellent Spanish almost hide the gringo in him.
Over lunch at the Restaurant Carolina, Jeff
He also pointed out some of the local characters, including one of the three Bobs in town — Cowboy Bob. This 72-year-old Floridian has a 27-year-old Costa Rican wife, a 3-year-old son and a blue Dodge Caravan. Neither Bob nor his wife speak each other's language well, but they seem a happy enough family. "It cuts down on things to argue about," Jeff chuckled as they drove off.
told us his parents still asked him what the hell he was doing down here. "I didn't run from anything or to anywhere," Jeff said. "I just wanted an interesting life. And where else can you go to the office barefoot?"
The beautiful beaches, wildlife and proximity to the virgin jungles of Corcovado National Park have attracted a fair share of foreign residents to Puerto Jimenez and the surrounding areas. In town, the menus are bilingual, and many locals speak English or Spanglish, no doubt learned for the tourist trade.
While we couldn't afford Jeff's lodge on our student budgets, he pointed us in the direction of the cleanest cheap rooms in town and invited us to use the beach at his place. So after a night of dancing, we trekked out to the Iguana Lodge and wiled the morning away with inner tubes and a body board, compliments of the lodge.
We had the beach to ourselves for most of the morning but by 11 the rains came and chased us back into town. In the afternoon, we ran into Jeff again, barefoot, on his way to get his brown, curly, sun-lightened locks cut.
We talked of our plans for the night and he told us a "discomovil" — a moving disco — would be coming to town that night. We asked if he would be going. "Maybe," Jeff said, but I sensed a kindred spirit when he gave me a sly wink and said, "But I don't dance."
Merkel-Hess is an Iowa City, Iowa, junior in journalism.
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