4A
Wednesday, September 27, 1995
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
THE ISSUE: VOLUNTEERISM
Charity drive needs our help
As part of the annual fund-raising drive for the United Way of Douglas County, the University of Kansas has issued a challenge to faculty and staff.
KU hopes to see at least 1,000 people give money to help support the 30 agencies that rely on United Way contributions. Last year, 619 faculty and staff members donated.
Traditionally, KU has contributed people-power and financial support to improve the community. Meeting the donation challenge would add to this established spirit of cooperation and commitment. United Way member agencies such as the Boys and Girls Club, Headquarters Counseling Center and the American Red Cross receive needed funds from this drive. Everyone including faculty and staff, benefits from living in a community in which helpful resources and services
United Way fund-raising drive needs money and time from KU students, staff and faculty.
KU has more than 4,000 faculty and staff members. For a university of this size, asking one-fourth of the faculty and staff to donate is not an unreasonable request. Students should donate their time and money as well. As the campaign literature says, "If everyone gives a little, then no one needs to give a lot."
At 15 percent, KU has had the lowest percentage of donors in the Big Eight. By contrast, 48 percent of Oklahoma State employees have donated. By meeting the challenge of 1,000 donors, the faculty and staff at KU would reinforce the University's commitment to creating a strong community for all Douglas County residents.
are available.
AIMEE WITTMAN FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD.
THE ISSUE: KU MEDICAL CENTER
Heart program revival is risky
A peer review committee did the right thing by recommending not to reopen the troubled heart-transplant program at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Chancellor Robert Hemenway and his staff deserve a chance to correct the program, but its usefulness may not outweigh its problems.
The heart-transplant program worked neither effectively nor efficiently. The problem centered on administration miscues. From 1994 to 1995, the Med Center did not perform a single heart transplant. It refused 22 of 45 hearts for nonmedical reasons, including unavailability of surgeons to perform the procedures. Yet the center continued to accept patients, but did not inform them that donor hearts were being denied. Plus, the committee found that many nurses were not qualified to assist with transplant procedures.
The committee recommended that the Med Center staff address these ethical questions before reopening the program. I said that patients were
Pouring money into fix ing the beleaguered transplant program may be too costly for KU
never in medical danger because of these bureaucratic pitfalls, but that does not excuse withholding vital information from patients.
The Kansas City area offers two other heart-transplant programs that appear more adept. The Med Center's program, however, is a selling point to prospective doctors for the University. The program proved detrimental to patients, though, and they should be more of a concern than the Med Center's reputation and enrollment figures. Hemenay said the Med Center would follow the committee's recommendations, but the program's wounds may be too deep. They will have to overhaul the entire operation which will be costly and time-consuming.
Hemenway deserves a chance to revive the transplant program, but with so many problems, it may have to die, so the Med Center can move on with its life.
MATT FEY FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
COLLEEN MCCAIN
Editor
DAVID WILSON
Managing editor, news
ASHLEY MILLER
Managing editor, planning & design
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
Editors
News & Special Sections .Deedra Allison
Editorial .Heather Lawrence
Associate Editorial .Barah Morrison
Campus .Virginia Marghelm
Associate Campus .Teresa Vesey
Associate Campus .Paul Todd
Sports .Jennil Carlson
Associate Sports .Missouri
Photo .Paul Kotz
Wire .Robert Allen
On-line coordinator .Tina Paseett
STEPHANIE UTLEY
Business manager
MATT SHAW
Retail sales manager
JAY STEINER
Sales and marketing adviser
CATHERINE ELLSWORTH
Technology coordinator
Business Staff
Campus mgr ... Meredith Hennong
Regional mgr ... Tom Dolce
National mgr ... Hoather Barnes
Special Section mgrs .. Heather Miohuea
Production mgrs .. Nancy Eustom
Krista Nye
Marketing director .. Kenan Houwer
Director .. Jonathan Wessler
Creative director .. Brigitte Bloomquist
Critical mgr .. Heather Valver
Internship/co-op mgr .. Kelly Connolly
Jeff MacNelly/ CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Racism unfortunately is alive and well on campus
Scott Jackson was having a stressful day last week, so he decided to sit on the steps of Strong Hall, light a clove cigarette and relax while waiting for his sister to pick him up.
Almost immediately, a young lady, Nikia Charles, came by and asked him about the distinctive smell of his clove. He offered her one; she accepted, and they both sat back to enjoy a brisk autumn day with a new friend.
During this time, Scott noticed that about half the people walking by were staring. One man even stopped and looked at them intently before shaking his head and walking past. Scott assumed it was because clove cigarettes smell like a cross between incense and a pig farm, but he was wrong.
After Nikia had left, the man came back and approached Scott.
"I can't believe you. I can't believe you," the disgusted man said. Scott was becoming annoyed that anyone would dare confront him about smoking outside.
"Don't you know she was Black?" the man asked.
Scott did know. He picked up on it right away, but although he is white, he didn't care. Unfortunately, he was shocked into silence and couldn't make that clear before the man walked away, still shaking his head.
And I thought racism was dead. My government tells me it is. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has said that our government only sees one race. California Gov. Pete Wilson has used this to abolish affirmative action in his state. And our own Senator Bob Dole has stood behind them, clapping the whole time. But they all are wrong. Racism
STAFF COLUMNIST
The day when we recognize people as people and not colors has been long in coming. But we can change our campus now if we work together. We must raise our voices in unison to drown out the hate spewed by the racist rabble. If you feel the same way, join Minority Affairs at 7:30 tomorrow night in Hashinger Hall for an open discussion on "Racial Healing." Stand up for racial equity and harmony. Don't allow the racists to walk away unchallenged.
just as there is about sexual harassment and consensual relationships — where the sanctions are given in detail. Sanctions should be swift and severe. There is no place in this University for racial hatred.
hasn't left our nation. It hasn't left our state. It hasn't left our town, or even our campus. It is alive and well and leaving its stink on the day-to-day existence of millions of our people.
Nationwide, African Americans account for 12 percent of our population. But according to Andrew Hacker, author of "Two Nations," they also account for 45 percent of our prison populations — up from 30 percent in 1950. And they are 2.76 times more likely than a white individual to be unemployed — up from 2.08 in 1960.
On a local level, two weeks ago in Templin Hall a white student was caught posting a flier on a bathroom door. It was a math test for Los Angeles high school students with questions such as, "If Johnny has an AK-47 that holds 30
rounds, and he fires 13 rounds per drive-by, how many drive-bys before he has to reload?" It used all ethnic names; it mentioned prostitution and drugs; and it was meant to insult every minority on campus.
Unfortunately, even if one is caught red-handed committing a hate crime on campus, the University has no explicit policy detailing the punishments to be meted out.
We have come so far since the civil rights movement of the 1960s, haven't we? We truly are a colorblind nation.
Todd Hlist is a Lyndon senior in social welfare.
A section should be included in the Students Rights and Responsibilities section of the University timetable about racial harassment
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Bill ignored Student Senate guidelines
As a returning member to this year's finance committee, I would like to have the opportunity to add to Sarah Wiese's coverage of the bill to the fund the Lawrence Housing Center, sponsored by Ami Hizer, holdover senator.
Almost all of the guidelines for funding were ignored by Hizer in this bill. While these were only guidelines and not actual rules and regulations, Hizer, the senior senator she is, should have given these guidelines the respect they deserve.
Secondly, Hizer failed to do her research about the correct channels through which this bill should flow. It is illegal for any expenditure of more than $500 to be paid to a service provider without a contract between that vendor and Senate. Hizer has put the cart before the horse on this bill.
As to the merits of the bill, they are few. The bill expands a tremendous percentage of our available funds for the year. In addition, Hizer should not have brought this bill to such a young committee, and to do so, in my opinion, smacks of steamrolling and, at the very least, irresponsibility. The committee, I believe,
has only six members returning from last year, had elected a chairman that night, and most of the members had not learned to make a simple motion, let alone have the background to consider such action as Hizer's.
Also, the bill is simply a duplication of services already available at no cost to the students and no new expense for Senate. The bill would provide funding for an office that would assist students with problems which may arise with their landlord, lease, etc.
The same information is available by a pamphlet printed by the Consumer Credit Counseling Service. KU Legal Services is a free legal service staffed by attorneys and is open to all students. Hizer is a senior senator, and I have a great deal of respect for her However, I cannot imagine the thought processes, if any, which she went through to conjure up this silly bill.
Andy Obermueller Liberal sophomore
Students need service to help with housing
I would like to respond to Sarah Wiese's article regarding the housing center proposed by Ami Hizer, senior holdover senator.
That article was little more than a medium used by two individuals involved in Student Senate, both of whom possess surprisingly little tact, to attack the integrity of Hizer.
In fact, there was little about the article to recommend it. I am in the committee for student rights, and I was there when Hizer presented her bill. It both makes sense for students and is needed desperately.
If, for example, the bill was a duplication of services as Andy Obermueller suggested in the story, why has the legal department steadily been referring students to the Credit Bureau in Topeka? It would make more sense to have a housing center here like the one in Topeka.
Although I have appreciated Wiese's articles in the past, I found this one to be appallingly under-researched and little more than a glorified smear campaign on both Hizer and her beleaguered bill.
I can attest personally — the bill was well-researched and Hizer, being the only person to address the problem of housing with anything more than rhetoric, has worked extremely hard. Credit where it is due is very little to ask.
Megan Weingart
Overland Park junior
People still are not getting the message of HIV prevention
"If it's the last dance, dance backwards." This simple phrase is found on one of the panels of the Names Project AIDS Quilt that visited Fort Hays State University Thursday through Sunday. Approxi-
STAFF COLUMNIST
On Saturday, I drove to Hays to see the quilt. I had seen it before but had forgotten how
mately 900 panels were laid out for the four-day event, representing about 4 percent of the panels that are displayed around the world.
powerful it can be. I was reminded of the enormity of the AIDS epidemic. In some form, it has touched almost everyone, both young and old.
AIDS has been a hot topic since Ryan White was kicked out of his school. Since that time, information about the disease and the HIV virus that causes it has reached people throughout the world, despite the limited amount of available information. Everyone has learned what AIDS is and how it is spread. It is a horrible disease that has killed thousands of people. However, for me the saddest and most frustrating thing about these deaths is that many of them could have been prevented.
More than 5,000 people had visited the quilt by 4 p.m. Saturday. Organizers were expecting the total to climb to at least 6,000 but were hoping for as many as 8,000 visitors. For a community the size of Hays, these numbers are very impressive.
Following these simple rules greatly reduces the risk of contacting HIV. They are taught widely, but unfortunately they are not followed. This lack of safe practice is why outreach projects such as the AIDS Memorial Quilt are necessary. Getting the word out to everyone is an important task and a difficult one.
Because of the manner in which the HIV virus is spread, the transmission can be prevented. The problem is that many people are unwilling to become educated about the HIV virus, and many more are unwilling to follow preventative measures. Misconceptions about many things contribute to this, making it more important to understand how HIV is spread in both heterosexual and homosexual relationships. So here, in a handy two-step plan, a guide to increased prevention: 1) Use a condom and 2) use a condom. If neither of these ideas is very appealing to you, a third option exists — don't have sex. For most people, these options don't sound very fun, but I guarantee you they are more fun than dying from AIDS complications.
Additional preventative measures can and should be taken when becoming involved in a sexual relationship. The most important is honestly talking to your partner about his or her sexual history. Also, if you might have contracted the virus, get tested, and get help.
Besides unprotected sex, the most common way of contracting HIV is through sharing IV needles. Some large cities such as New York have highly criticized programs that give free needles to IV drug users. Although that wouldn't work in every community, it sends a message about the importance of using clean needles.
For most people, seeing the quilt is an emotional experience. Next to each 12-by-12 segment sits a box of Kleenex for visitors who didn't bring their own. However, the panels do offer hope, and they offer advice — live your life fully; laugh a lot and love even more. And when all else fails, be original and dance backwards.
Stacy Nagy is a Topska sophomore in Russian.