4A
Tuesday, October 3. 1995
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
THE ISSUE: HAZING SANCTIONS
Punishment not stiff enough
Recent sanctions taken against the Delta Chi fraternity for hazing may limit their ability to function as an official organization, but the punitive measures that were taken amount to nothing more than a slap on the wrist.
The message of zero tolerance only will become real if universities eliminate organizations that participate in hazing. Why isn't there a more severe punishment available for the University to impose in cases where the actions of a student group threaten the lives if its members?
The details of this incident should be made public. David Ambler, vice chancellor for student affairs, said that the University had a good idea of what happened but that there was no plan to disclose the results of the investigation. It seems imprudent to overlook such an appropriate learning experience.
Eliminating groups that participate in hazing is the only way to send campus a message of zero tolerance.
The Delta Chi fraternity should apologize publicly to the University for the negative national exposure it generated, as well as to the greek community, since this makes the entire system look bad.
Breaking bad habits and advancing beyond anachronistic tradition requires constant reinforcement. Anti-hazing education established with funds raised by each greek organization should be part of every initiation, and upperclass members should participate actively. This would be a reminder to all students that hazing is wrong and will not be tolerated, instead of waiting until someone gets hurt.
BRIAN RUNK FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
THE ISSUE: THE ENVIRONMENT
Buses need alternative eco-fuel
The Lawrence Bus Company may be testing an environmentally efficient fuel, which is good news to many students, faculty and staff who are tired of inhaling noxious bus fumes on Jayhawk Boulevard.
Last week, KU Environs told the transportation board that they had at least 55 gallons of alternative fuel that the Lawrence Bus Company — the company that in conjunction with Student Senate runs KU on Wheels could test. The fuel is supposed to cut carbon monoxide emissions by 21 percent.
The Lawrence Bus Company asked Environs for more information about the fuel before it makes a decision on accepting the test batch.
Every week, old buses rumble through campus carting people to class and
Whether this environmentally friendly fuel proves to be efficient and cost effective remains to be seen. But the Lawrence Bus Company should pursue testing the fuel and any other means of decreasing the amount of exhaust spilled into the air.
KU on Wheels should research the benefits of new fuel, which would decrease fumes and be environmentally safe.
spewing sooty exhaust into the air.
The outdated buses contaminate the atmosphere with far more exhaust than more modern buses do. Since a switch to newer buses is not financially feasible for the Lawrence Bus Company, finding ways to make the current busses less harmful to the environment is the best solution.
However, KU Environs should not carry the burden of providing the test fuel or research for such alternatives. The Lawrence Bus Company should share in the responsibility of finding solutions to the problem. With the cooperation of the Lawrence Bus Company and KU Environs, students at the University of Kansas can enjoy a much needed bus service, and pedestrians can walk the campus sidewalks without having their lungs assaulted by toxic exhaust.
SARAH MORRISON FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Jeff MacNelly/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Book vandalism is the most nefarious destruction of all
"Fags Must Die!" The violence of the statement hit me hard. I felt my jaws clench tight and my face get hot. I had learned long ago to overlook the frequently violent homophobic expressions that I encounter all too often. If I let myself get angry about every hateful remark I see or hear, I would never have the time or energy for anything else. But I was really caught off-guard by this random verbal assault that I found inside the library book that I had just pulled off the shelf.
Soon this remark, too, lost the strength that the element of surprise had given it. Yet something about that experience continues to bother me, beyond the bigotry and hatred of its author — the vandalism of the book.
If you look at just a few of the books in Watson Library you will find passages underlined in ink, highlighted with permanent markers and covered with comments in the margins and even across the text. These books, which belong to everyone who uses them, are being systematically destroyed. According to U.S. News & World Report, the University of Kansas spends more than $10,000 per student per year. I wonder what percentage of that is spent replacing or repairing damaged property? What is worse is
STAFF COLUMNIST
that many of the books being mangled are out of print and can't ever be replaced.
ity of recycling, our general attitudes reflect our temporary, disposable way of life in many ways. We buy clothing that goes out of style in a year, so we have to buy more. New cars are bought to replace older ones that still run but no longer show the same social standing.
The problem may sound trivial, but I think it is indicative of a greater ill: American society in general is based on a system of using up and throwing away. In spite of the growing popular-
Our society is in a race to build more expensive (but shoddy) homes on the outskirts of our cities, leaving behind a ripple-effect of rotting inner cities. For many users of library materials, dropping the book in the return chute is the same as throwing it in the garbage. Once they're done with it, its use or even its availability for use is irrelevant. I amware that some of the
deface library books don't even consider the gravity of their actions. After all, most of the books they've seen are covered with marks. But in this period of overwhelming budgetary problems, it's time to realize that we no longer can afford to continue to just use things up and throw them out. When there isn't enough money to replace materials, or they simply can't be replaced, we'll be left with nothing but a huge collection of trashed, unusable books. It is time to learn.
When you see someone underlining a book with ink, tell them to stop. After all, the book belongs to you, too. When you see someone (as I have) walk up to the encyclopedias in Watson, find the entry, and then rip out the page, report them to the circulation desk. When you have a student (as I have) sit in your class or your office marking the pages of library material, inform them that their behavior is unacceptable. Use post-it if you need to make a note or photocopy short passages and mark them to your heart's content. And if you feel the need to write bigoted remarks, chalk the sidewalk — it washes off.
Scott Manning in a Lawrence graduate student in French.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Oscar Meyer protest raises important issues
Jenny Wiedeke raised some interesting issues in her column condemning PETA for its slaughter of a toy pig in front of school children gathered around the Oscar Meyer Wiener car. She says that "such protesters hide behind the First Amendment and use it in ways" for which it was not intended." As a journalism major, she should realize that the First Amendment protects the expression of unpopular views. Vegetarianism and animal rights are unpopular causes.
Views supporting the eating of cooked flesh are often taught to school children. Meat and dairy producers give school children the information that meat is food, not murder. PETA must resort to outlandish strategies to communicate its message to children. Knowledge of vegetarian diets is kept from children, while corporations rent out children's minds with catchy jingles such as 'I wish
I were an Oscar Meyer Wiener. I doubt that any child would really wish to meet such a grusome fate. Pigs are fed steroids, antibiotics, and animal waste while awaiting execution.
Hot dogs are potentially toxic to young children because they contain nitrosamines, the most potent carcinogens yet discovered. Experts have warned that children under 10 who eat hot dogs regularly are at higher risk of developing leukemia and stomach cancer. Dr. Ljulsky, former director of the Chemical Carcinogenesis Research and Development Center in Maryland, compares eating hot dogs to inhaling second-hand smoke.
The true abusers of children are the manufacturers who torture animals and dump poisoned carcasses into grocery stores in plastic wrap and corporate logos. As the Smith's sang, meat is murder. It appears now that meat can murder as well.
Lawrence graduate student
Arthur Kelly
How to submit letters and guest columns
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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 Heather Lawrenz, editorial page editor, or Sarah Morrison, associate editorial editor, at 864-4810.
Two Jayhawk athletes from rough inner city beat the odds
Talk about feeling old. Last week, I had dinner with a couple of my former students, Charisse Sampson and Keshana Ledet. Both are members of the Kansas women's basketball team, but when I knew them, they were 15 year olds, leading a
championship squad at Washington Preparatory High School (which we call The Prep) in Los Angeles.
As these girls — women — and I sat dipping tortilla chips into cheese salsa, reminiscing about The Prep, they reminded me of the horrors of attending school in the inner city.
Invariably, the talk turned to recalling students who have died in gang warfare.
The conversation always starts the same: "Do you remember Wallace Dumas?" Charisse asks. Before she could explain that he was gunned down while standing on a street corner mere blocks from the school, I already knew his fate. Her tone as she describes him to me, trying to refresh my memory says it all. It is not a tone that announces, "Well, he goes to UCLA now, and he's graduating in June." It is the tone that always precedes tragedy and doom — a tone we heard often during our time at The Prep. We remembered others: a Sam somebody and a Felicia Williams — a haunting sort of roll call.
To look at Keshana and Charisse now, one would never know that they had overcome so much, and perhaps they don't really think it is that big a deal themselves. But it is a big deal. These two played in games where the crowd sometimes erupted into a brawling fiasco. They rode team buses to schools in rival gang territory. I rode with them to the championship game at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, located in a particularly frightening part of town. The players seemed oblivious to their surroundings and simply sung in harmony to the Anita Baker hit that struggled out of the crackly bus radio. I wonder how oblivious they really were. Their class, the class of 1992, graduated just a couple of months after the riots. The ceremony was held off campus, giving everyone a chance to escape its dismal atmosphere.
Charisse and Keshana escaped even further. And when I ask if they visit the school or see anybody from home, Charisse immediately says, "I don't even go back there. I don't feel comfortable there." Both praised the Kansas women's basketball program and their coach, Marian Washington. They talked about how she "stays on them" and makes sure they get to class and learn something. Coach Washington is "all that and then some," says Keshana. Music to a former teacher's ears.
It is easy to forget about The Prep, attending school thousands of miles away in Lawrence, and I must say it was strange to hear "Hey Miss Webster!" (my maiden name) in the Wescoe Terrace. But The Prep and many schools like it do exist, and not everybody gets out. For every Charisse and Keshana, "there are countless others who get pregnant, drop out or just end up hopeless."
When I watch these two in action now, I will be cheering for much more than a Jayhawk victory.
Donna Davis is an Overland Park graduate student in education.
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HUBIE