4A
Monday, September 18, 1995
OPINION UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
THE ISSUE: FINANCIAL AID
Students should fight cuts
The student activism seen on campus last week. protesting
week protesting financial aid cuts sent a message to Rep. Jan Meyers and the rest of Congress. Students will fight for financial aid for higher education. However, more should be done to make student voices heard.
Meyers was quoted in the University Daily Kansan as saying, "If we balance the budget during the next seven years, every aspect of the country will feel the pinch a little bit."
Meyers is right. Everyone is going to make sacrifices in the process of balancing the budget. But the proposed cuts are far more than "a pinch."
The plan calls for the elimination of the Perkins Loan program, State Student Incentive Grant, Harris and Javits Graduate Fellowship Programs, the National Service program.
Congress'proposed cuts to financial aid should not go through without hearing students' protests.
nearly a quarter million students from the Pell Grant Program and the Stafford Loan interest exemption and six-month deferment.
The proposed cuts would cost American families $20 billion during the next five years.
The result of the cuts may help balance the national budget, but the cuts also would mean many students would be denied the opportunity for a college degree. The financial assistance just would not be available.
Concerned students should continue to speak out against the cuts. Call 1-800-574-4AID and let your voice be heard.
SARAH MORRISON FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD.
THE ISSUE: JON'S NOTES
Jon's Notes should be banned
Professors at the University of Kansas should follow the model of Kansas State University by encouraging students to take their own notes.
Jon's Notes, a Nebraska-based note-taking company, has folded at Kansas State.
Professors ran the company out of Manhattan by not allowing its note-taking employees into classes. Some professors at Kansas State said that Jon's Notes decreased attendance in classes, and many of the professional note-takers were acting without professors' permission.
Jon's Notes is alive and well at KU, supplying notes to 28 classes. But the professors at Kansas State have a valid point.
Unless a student has a disability, another individual is not needed to take notes for him or her, especially for $29.50 a semester.
One could argue that when a student falls ill, misses class and doesn't know anyone to borrow notes from, Jon's Notes is a good way to catch up on missed lectures.
But why pay for notes?
It should be the responsibility of the instructor to supply students with material missed while they were sick, as well as the student's responsibility to catch up with missed work.
Professors need to encourage attendance and discourage students from taking the easy way out of classes.
Students already are paying instructors with tuition money. Students should not dish out even more money for a service that is unnecessary.
Not only can the service be a waste of money, but it could encourage students to skip class. Why go to a lecture with 500 other students when one already can buy a whole semester's notes and stay home? The intention of Jon's Notes may not be to keep students out of the classroom, but such a service isn't really needed for serious students, and it could erode the student/instructor intellectual relationship.
Students need to think for themselves and make their own decisions about education, but $29.50 can be spent more wisely.
IAN RITTER FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Robert Tapley / KANSAN
Recent assaults should provide lessons for us
A pepper-spray key chain. It's not the gift every girl dreams about from her daddy.
KANSAN STAFF
"I won't have any use for it," because no one ever would assault me.
"C'mon dad," I scoffed, holding it with two fingers and smiling at him patiently. "I don't need it," because I can protect myself.
But Lawrence isn't what it used to be. In the last three weeks, three close friends have been assaulted, and another assault was reported in the University Daily Kansan. I assume this stuff has been going on all the time, but the number of assaults that have hit me close to my heart are shocking me out of my naive and scaring bricks out of my wall of invincibility.
Four female KU students reported a naked guy in a ski mask masturbating in front of their apartment a week and a half ago. The Kansan made fun of it: "The naked truth: Masked man shows
"Besides, I live in Lawrence."
"Besides, I live in Lawrence."
Two syllables that meant so much: a small and secure community, an anti female-harassing mentality, 2 a.m. walks alone through South Park when nothing happened, wanderings through forgotten and deserted Watson stacks when nothing happened and the general security that nothing bad happens.
threw down her bike and ran toward her house. He followed her through her front gate and onto her porch, but she made it inside before he could catch her. He prowled around on the porch and then ran off.
These assaults are so terrifying and angering because they're so intrusive. Someone shouldn't be able to touch you or to watch you or to play with themselves in your front yard. And yet they've been successful.
STEPHANIE TLEY
Business manager
MATT SHAW
Retail sales manager
JAY STEINER
Sales and marketing adviser
CATHERINE ELLSWORTH
Technology coordinator
A peeping tom was harassing one friend and her two roommates two weeks ago. Another friend was followed as she drove home. When she reached her house, the person driving attempted with his car to block her from opening her car door. She ran inside and called the police, but the person drove away before police arrived.
I stamp my feet and say it's not fair. These people shouldn't be able to steal women's security if they must walk down badly-lit streets. We should be able to insist that it won't happen to us. We should be able to believe in a police force that will catch them and a justice system that will try them accurately and a treatment program that will prevent them from doing it again. More dream-like, we should be able to believe that angry, confused and aggressive men won't approach us.
all." And it is humorous. But this guy was waiting in the bushes for them. When they went out on their porch, he jumped out and began to perform. He ran off before the police got there.
Lots of fairy godmother wishes that won't be magically granted soon. While I'm waiting, I guess I'll have to blow the dust off my dad's gift.
"I mean, he could be out there anywhere," said one of the women.
It was late, and she had just ridden home on her bike from work at the library. A man called to her from the side of the house next door, and she assumed it was her next-door neighbor. But as he approached her, fast and aggressively, she realized it wasn't. She
It hit the closest to my heart, however, when my best friend was assaulted.
But, please, I don't want to use it.
Angelina Lopez is a Tuisa, Okla., senior in Journalism.
STAFF COLUMNIST
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Campus mgr ... Meredith Hennings
Regional mgr ... Tom Dulce
National mgr ... Heather Barnes
Special Sections mgr .. Heather Nishuahe
Production mgr .. Nancy Eaton
Krista Rye
Marketing director .. Konan Hauser
Operations manager .. Karen Hauser
Creative director .. Brigit Bloomquist
Classified mgr .. Heather Valier
Internship/co-op mgr .. Kelly Connally
Anonymous activists vainly deface campus
Business Staff
Campus vandals continue to express their messages through ridiculous means. We all have been subjected to it and yet none of us are reached.
I have become so numbed and accustomed to assaulting messages that I no longer even read the billboard-sized statements. These people do more to discredit their cause than anything else.
COLLEEN MCCAIN
Editor
DAVID WILSON
Managing editor, news
ASHLEY MILLER
Managing editor, planning & design
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
I'm sure that compulsively violent people or prospective rapists are profoundly changed when they read "Stop the violence" scribbled in front of Stauffer-Flint Hall. We are part of an unwilling audience.
Editors
In response to Tuesday's article, I want to know who these self-righteous crusaders are. What makes
News & Special Sections . Desiree Altton
Editorial . Heather Lawrenson
Associate Editorial . Sarah Morrison
Campus . Virginia Merghulm
Associate Campus . Teresa Varey
Associate Campus . Paul Todd
Sports . Jem Carlson
Sports Bureau . Tom McNeil
Photo . Paul Kozt
Wire . Robert Allen
On-line coordinator . Tina Fassett
Overland Park junior
Rob Elton
Child molesters are influenced by TV ads
them think that defacing our campus with "politically correct" messages will change anything? If these counseling cowards have such a cause to fight for, why don't they sign their names?
After reading Nicole Kennedy's column, I felt someone should comment on the real-world consequences of her statement, "... while the television ads may have aroused desires in an existing child molester, they did not tantalize the normal adult to the point of action." The American public has a right to get upset over that type of irresponsible
advertising. Just who does the columnist believe will be victimized by the existing child molesters?
I think her willingness to write off these victims reflects an attitude as calloused and self-serving as that of the advertisers. She goes on to champion the Kansas sexual predator law and makes many good points. However, we need to be just as concerned with the daily triggers that spark those whose sexual perversion vents itself upon our children.
If the American public stops responding to things that they perceive as threats to the social and moral well-being of this country, the laws we have enacted will have no bite.
Sandra Reed Lawrence resident
Colin Powell's book shows that he has the right stuff
Donna Davie is an Overland Park graduate student in education.
Like Powell, many people are fed up with the political process and the bickering on Capitol Hill. We are ready for someone to do something. Powell admits when he is unsure about an issue, and he welcomes advice and insight from all sides. He says it is "our responsibility as lucky Americans ... to try to give back to this country as much as it has given to us," and he hopes we will take the journey with him. He sounds like a president to me.
It is hard not to like Colin Powell. He commands respect, is unafraid of revealing who he is and what he stands for and does not seem to be caught up in the mess of politics. With the release of his recent biography, "My
STAFF COLUMNIST
Powell may not want to be a role model, but he is one. "My American Journey" describes his humble Harlem beginnings, his introduction to the horrors of Vietnam, his experiences as national security adviser for Ronald Reagan and as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for George Bush. He was a vital component in the decisions made during the Gulf War. He seems unimpressed with all of this, that it is unremarkable that an African American held such positions. His fundamental philosophy of hard work paid off, he guesses. What better message for young people to receive? What better messenger?
American Journey," the nation finally will get a chance to learn more about this man. The question on everyone's mind is: Will he run for president? I would add a second question: Does he have a ghost of a chance to win? Regardless of whether Powell decides to run
for president, it is refreshing to see an African-American man become such a magnet for the media and the country. I am old enough to remember the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. I was not quite sure what was happening or why my father paced around the room like a caged animal. I knew that something sad had taken place and that the sadness seemed to be everywhere. For African Americans, King's death was a devastating blow, from which we never have fully recovered. We have missed his public presence and his ability to bring people together. More important, a generation of African Americans is growing up with only old pictures and news clips of the important hero, and no other person has duplicated King's impact on U.S. culture or on civil rights.
Powell says in his biography that he doesn't want to become the "Great Black Hope" — a role model for African Americans or a symbol to whites that racism has been overcome. He states that he only would enter the presidential race if he could do a better job than the other candidates in solving the nation's problems. He would not expect or desire to have anything handed to him, he says. He would expect and would be ready for a fight to lead this country. Powell is no stranger to the battlefield, and he says, "I know what it takes to win."
SUBJECT TO CHANGE
By Shawn Trimble