4A
Thursday, October 26, 1995
OPINION UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
THE ISSUE: RESIDENCE HALLS
RAs deserve in-state tuition
University of Kansas resident assistants no longer will be eligible for the tuition benefits the University previously gave. Revoking these benefits will reduce the number of students who want to be RAs and could force some RAs to seek other employment.
Starting next year, RAs will not receive in-state tuition. RAs still will get free room and board and $825 for the year. Granted, they do have an acceptable benefits package, but RAs still should receive instate tuition — especially because it had been promised to them.
It appears that the department of student housing is unable to stick to a decision and has left some RAs to decide whether they can afford to keep their positions. Earlier this year, RAs were told by Jonathan Long, assistant director of student housing, that they would receive tuition benefits for as long as they were employed with the department of student housing. Recently, 109 RAs received letters informing
Resident assistants face new financial burdens because of a reduction in their benefit package.
them that they would no longer be eligible for instate tuition after this academic year. The department of student housing has admitted that they made a mistake by telling RAs they would receive instate tuition. This mistake is irresponsible and unfair to many RAs.
Some out-of-state and international RAs no longer will be able to keep their jobs because of their increased tuition, and they will be forced to find employment elsewhere. Because of the decrease in benefits, fewer students will want to work for the department of student housing. For some RAs, it could be financially impossible.
RAs are a vital part of student housing. They contribute greatly to the lives of many students. It's disappointing that the department of student housing is willing to risk losing RAs by making false promises.
TARF FITZPATRICK FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD.
THE ISSUE: EDUCATION
Program will help the young
State Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence, recently has decided to attempt to bring a national movement to the Kansas public school system.The movement is a one-week program focused on teaching six pillars of character to school children across the country. This "Character Counts" program is an outstanding idea and one that is vital to safeguarding our school children from the social decay that is eroding America's young.
The plan was developed by a national coalition of individuals and organizations from different political viewpoints as an attempt to combat youth violence, teen pregnancy, cheating and theft. The six values are trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship.
It is just too bad that we have come to the point where we have to rely on
A program endorsed by State Rep. Barbara Ballard would teach school children six pillars of good character.
schools to teach our children the moral and social values that they should be taught at home.
Local response to the idea has been nothing but positive, and Ballard hopes to see the program implemented in area schools for a month-long period.
Violence, crime and many other social problems have been seeping into the lives of America's youth. The responsibility to teach children the character-building values that would prevent this deterioration should fall on the parents and families who are raising America's children. In the absence of such leadership, we should thank Ballard for her efforts to help pick up the slack.
CHRIS VINE FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Marko Fields / KANSAN
March numbers don't count,but unity does
At least 500 strong, there we were. Black men, all waiting to hear Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam.
There we were.
In a line that stretched around the Dallas Convention Center three times and rolled on down the street, there we were.
There we stood 500 African-American men. Doctors in designer suits and garbage men in fresh washed overalls.
But it wasn't about him.
I had been standing in line for an hour, watching policemen on horses and foot pass by. They were waiting for any sign of trouble, but there was none.
We were Baptists and Muslims. We were 16-year-olds in baggy jeans and "Kangaroo hats."
We were fathers and college students.
KANSAN STAFF
There was an 80-year-old man waiting patiently in line behind a smiling young father and his seven-year-old son.
In all of my life, I had never been around so many African-American men, and we all stood proud together as brothers.
But most of all, we were together.
We were Baptists and Muslims.
There wasn't one fight, one argument or one reason for there to be an officer present.
Some were dressed in fine African attire; others like me came
in old jeans and a T-shirt, but we were there all-man rally.
Farrakhan was there to rally African-American men for the Million Man March on Washington last Monday. We didn't know that then, and I don't think we were standing in line to
This wasn't about saying, "it's a Black thang you wouldn't understand." To me, it was about saying "How we can we expect someone else to help us as African Americans if we can't stand together on our own first?"
It was about standing up and standing together.
How can I stand as American or as anything when I can't stand as a man?
COLLEEN MCCAIN
Editor
DAVID WILSON
Managing editor, news
ASHLEY MILLER
Managing editor, planning & design
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
The rally I went to created a program of manhood to teach Black men how to take a stronger role in their communities.
Rufus Coleman is a Dallas sophomore in Journalism.
We were there to stand together, to be together.
And even though the rally was opened only to African-American men, Black women roamed the crowds in groups chanting, "Go Black Man! Go Black Man! Go!"
Women walked around carrying signs saying, "We have to stand behind our Black man." There were those who protested the restriction and disagreed with the restriction, but it wasn't about that.
This was about saying we're not extinct. We do exist. There are problems. We as African Americans have so much to deal with,
While our leader wasn't perfect by any means, he did create the opportunity. This was about having some unity when there really wasn't any.
We weren't there to convert to Nation of Islam or to support or protest all the controversy surrounding the minister.
Enrolling in Western Civilization frustrating
Whether there were 400,000 men there or a million, the Million Man March was a show of support, and while people may say that nothing really happened or nothing was accomplished, the march got more African Americans to register to vote and to be a voice in their communities.
But I think the thing that people are missing about this march was that it wasn't about Louis Farrakhan, and I certainly don't think he represented the span of African-American thought. This march was about unity. It was about standing together.
and we are here to deal with these issues.
This letter is being written in response to an article from the front page of the Oct. 18 University Daily Kansan. Last year, I went through the Western Civilization program. Let me tell you, the hardest part about it was getting into a class, and this comes from an individual who worked his butt off in the class. The most frustrating part about it is that I didn't even want to be in the class in the
From the beginning, the Million Man March has faced problems. Whether people disagreed with its organizer or discrepancies about the number who attended.
STAFF COLUMNIST
Editors
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Hews & Special Sections...Douglas Allison
Editorial...Norther Lawrence
Associate Editorial...Sarah Harrison
Campus...Virginia Marghelm
Associate Campus...Yoreen Vezayx
Associate Campus...Paul Todd
Sports...Jennil Carlson
Associate Sports...Tom Ericsson
Photo...Johnson
Wire...Robert Allen
On-line coordinator...Tina Fassett
Louis Farrakhan.
Jason Pych Lawrence senior
first place. But I understand that the University of Kansas requires us to take certain classes in order to maintain a high standard of academic excellence. What I don't understand is why the University refuses to provide adequate funding for Western Civilization classes. Before the cuts were made, students had a hard enough time getting into classes. Now, it will be even tougher. Yeah, I know that enrollment is down 500 students from last year. But the fact remains that most students don't take Western Civilization until at least their junior
year. This means that there will be at least one class of students who are additionally crunched for space. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. What about the tip that Western Civilization instructors are only allowed two or three photocopies per student in a single month? Or what about the oversized classes? If KU is going to require its students to take Western Civilization, then it needs to provide proper funding. What we have now is just disgraceful.
Pro-marijuana rhetoric gives kids dangerous mixed message
Childe's favorite thing to do was to sit in his bedroom and listen to Pink Floyd.
Childe, one of my best friends my sophomore year in high school, was a great guy: intelligent, funny, really attractive although he was a little small for his age.
A 22 year old who has decided to smoke pot knows that there are other inspirations and highs out there; a good fall day, sex, a Free State burger. But how much does a 13 year old know about all the other highs in life that aren't drug induced? Does it deaden their desire for those other highs?
How many will regret spending their teenage years listening to Pink Floyd in a dark room?
There's also a depression that sets in with prolonged and intense marijuana use. It's creeping, and many times pot smokers don't know they're down until they've stopped smoking for awhile.
Everyone was hot for him.
STAFF COLUMNIST
It was all kind of "Dazed and Confused" hilarious; this high school guy, sitting in the dark and pulling
It's not a such a great "laid back and getting high" story when you add in that he had been sitting in his room, smoking pot and listening to "Dark Side of the Moon" since he was 10.
No, but few people get their butts off the couch when they become serious pot smokers.. They want to hang out, list to music, watch TV. No problem. But over a period of time, this lack of motivation becomes internalized and affects them even when they're not high. They go out, they work, but they have lost their desire to move on, to advance their lives beyond hanging out in Lawrence. Too many great minds are perfectly happy with being Lawrence waiters and bartenders.
But this 17-year-old boy, whose hormones should have been running full throttle, was more captivated by the "dings" in the song "Money" than the girls giving him the eye.
on a bong while two or three teenage girls scrambled to light it.
Angela Lopez is a Tulsa, Okla., senior in journalism.
His mom was an old-school San Francisco hippy who had no problem with his habit.
Kids — young kids — are getting high, and the numbers of kids doing it are increasing. Twenty-six percent of Lawrence eighth graders have tried marijuana more than twice, according to a survey released by DCCCA, a local drug and alcohol prevention center. Ten percent said they used it weekly or more often. So one out of every four of those little 13 year olds who saunter past you on Mass street has tried pot.
Statistics like this make advocates of legalizing marijuana incredibly uneasy. It's harmless, they say. No one has ever died from a marijuana overdose. It has endless medicinal possibilities, they say. It should be an adult's right to choose their own lifestyle, and it should not be criminalized by the government.
But how does a person respond when these ideas begin trickling down to children? They see us 20-somethings, the hip and trendy MTV generation, casually smoking pot like it was eating apple pie. Movies like "Dazed and Confused" glamorize it. Out of their 13-year-old mouths flow the words, "No one has ever died from a marijuana overdose."
HUBIE
By Greg Hardin
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