4A
Friday, September 8, 1995
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
THE ISSUE: APPLIED ENGLISH CENTER
Requirements help students
Successfully maneuvering through most University of Kansas courses requires solid English skills. Some international students arrive lacking this proficiency. For these students, classes at the Applied English Center are their best option.
By providing this service, the AEC serves to better integrate foreign students into the academic culture of KU.
Some maintain, however, that there are glitches in the existing system. One suggestion advocates lowering the score on the Test of English as a Foreign Language from 570 to 550, thus allowing more students to bypass the AEC altogether.
Instead of debating about what the AEC should do, attention should be focused on what it does do — namely, improving the listening, reading and writing abilities of many international
Required English test of proficiency ensures that foreign students can compete and succeed in KU classrooms.
students.
The AEC should not lower its standards. Scoring 570 on the English test ensures only a basic proficiency. KU students, however, need to compete in challenging and sometimes complex courses of study. Requiring international students to display a certain proficiency in English raises their chances for success in the educational arena.
The present requirements recognize the importance of language as the groundwork for further academic achievement. Armed with stronger English skills and nurtured by the AEC, international students will be better prepared to actively participate in their KU education.
AIMEE WITTMAN FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Reservations need casinos
THE ISSUE: LEGALIZED GAMBLING
By early next year, University of Kansas students may have a shot at riding the rough waters of gambling in the state of Kansas.
The only forms of legal betting in Kansas are the lottery, horse racing and dog racing, but casinos on Native American reservations in Kansas seem possible in the near future.
The reservation that probably will have the first casino in Kansas will be the Kickapoo reservation, which is six miles west of Horton. Though Horton is a long trek for students who want a shot at winning the big bucks, the Kickapoo casino could pave the way for four other reservation casinos within 90 miles of Kansas City.
On July 24, the Legislative Coordinating Council approved a gambling compact that would legalize casinos on reservations, and Gov. Bill Graves has supported the measure.
Not only could casinos mean possible fortune
Gambling would bring reservations money for improvements in law enforcement, healthcare and education.
for students and others (along with possible losses),but they would generate money that could go toward the improvement of the reservations.
Lance Burr, tribal attorney general and Lawrence lawyer, told the Kansas City Star that casinos could help enact much needed improvements on reservations. He said that education, law enforcement and health facilities needed to be improved.
Since Kansas laws do not apply to reservations, and many, like the Kickapoo, are in an unfortunate state, all of the financial help possible could improve social conditions.
Not only could students have a chance at winning some extra beer or book money, but they could be helping to improve the quality of life on reservations.
IAN RITTER 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
Edition
STEPHANIE UTLEY
Business manager
MATT SHAW
Retail sales manager
JAY STEINER
Sales and marketing adviser
CATHERINE ELLSWORTH
Technology coordinator
News & Special Sections - Dooordra Allison
Editorial - Heather Lewenrs
Associate Editorial - Sarah Morrison
Writers - Wendy Wilson
Associate Campus - Terese Vossy
Associate Campus - Paul Todd
Sports - Jemel Carlson
Associate Sports - Tom Ericsson
Nationwide Media - John Morton
Wife - Robert Allen
Business Staff
Campus mgr ... Morseth Hanning
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Special Sections mgr ... Michael Weston
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Marketing director ... Konan Rauzer
Public Relations director ... Beth Cattin
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Dismissed mgr ... Weather Vailer
Jeff MacNelly/ CHICAGO TRIBUNI
I'm still working on Spanish. My "Si's" became a common joke among my Spanish friends, ones I laughed at once I understood what they were saying.
But for me, it's still going to be a long time until I'm like Angelica.
And they were never worried about her not learning English and chiming "Si" while she dusted the china. Angelica is a senior at the University of Boulder and plans to become a professor in Spanish and French, the language she mastered the year before while studying in France.
Bilingual upbringing is a wonderful gift, not abuse
At first, we seemed so much alike. We were both Chicanas, Mexicans born in the United States. Her name was Angelica Maria Lozano-Alonso. Mine: Angelina Marle Lopez. We even wore the same travel outfits on the plane to Spain: black stretch pants, white t-shirts and denim long sleeves.
But as we sat down with our new Spanish roommates in the apartment that would be our home during our semester in Spain, our differences were embarrassingly underlined.
Angelica immediately burst into a warm flow of fluent Spanish, introducing herself and chattering about her excitement of being there. Our roommates, overjoyed to have an American with such a mastery of the language, chattered back about how beautiful her Mexican accent was. I, sitting in the middle of the chattering and grinning and handholding, nodded my head dumby and said "SF" to anything that was said in my general direction. "SI" seemed so much better than "No entiended." I don't understand.
Angelica, too, only spoke Spanish with her parents until she was five years old. And if there's anyone who knows about education, it's Angelica's parents. Her father is a Spanish professor at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Her mother is a high school teacher who instructs advance placement Spanish classes. They taught her Spanish because — as educated, literate people — they valued it as a language important in the shrinking world. As Spanish-speakers, they valued it as an important link to her heritage and to her family.
Angelina Lopez is a Tutsa, Okla., senior in journalism.
My father stopped speaking Spanish when he was five years old, and bore a daughter with a Latina name and face but little else to support her ancestry. But Angelica's parents — who both speak English — have never spoken anything but Spanish to her.
I consider knowledge of the Spanish language a gift, one I wish my father could have given to me and one I hope to give to my children.
In mid-August,
State District
Judge Samuel
Kiser ordered a
woman to stop
speaking only
Spanish to her
five-year-old
daugh t h e r
because "you're
abusing that
child, and you're
Ajudge in Texas,
how ever, believes this is
child abuse.
STAFF COLUMNIST
relegating her to the position of a housemaid." Later, he apologized to housekeepers but maintained his decision, saying that parents should "facilitate their children's education."
NAFTA-like doors are opening. The ability to communicate will make this intermingling of people and cultures much easier. It's ridiculous to assume parents are not "facilitating education" when they teach Spanish to their children.
Comparing abuse with not teaching a child English is damaging on two fronts. First, it horribly trivializes what real abuse is. Second, it highlights the United States' unchanging attitude toward Spanish and other foreign languages — that they are unnecessary and subclass to English. Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole advocated this attitude when he said Monday that English must be recognized as the country's official language because it would fight divisive forces in our country. Is the 14 percent of the population who already speak Spanish in our country causing "division?" Or is the problem those unwilling to accept those 17 million people? The world is shrinking, and
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Specifically, Irwin brought up the case of Dallas Cowboy fullback Daryl Johnston, and a former Kansas City Royal, the great George Brett. Irwin feels Johnston and Brett are so popular because they are white — he calls this racism.
Fans cheer athletes feats,not skin color
Racism is a very controversial subject these days, as it has been for some time. It is also a subject that should not be taken lightly. However, Matt Irwin decided to use this word as the basis for his article in the Thursday, August 31, edition of the Kansan's sports section, showing poor journalistic taste.
Racism does exist in sports and it causes considerable damage endangering the very existence of professional athletics. It is not an issue to be discussed lightly.
Todd Nirsch Rockaway, N.J. junior
He mentions the mistreatment of former Royal Frank White, supposedly treated poorly because of the color of his skin. Frank White was not treated as well as he should have been upon his departure, for he was a great second baseman. However, he was never as good as George Brett.
To infer that these particular players have a large fan base due to the color of their skin is ridiculous.
Perhaps you've heard of Michael Jordan, Shaquille
O'Neal, Emmit Smith or Jerry Rice? These are all exceptional athletes, who receive thunderous welcomes in other cities, all are treated very well and all happen to be Black. This kind of throws a curve into Matt Irwin's racism theory, doesn't it?
Battle for equal rights has been hindered by foolish vandals
"Dykes Rule!", "Lesbians Create! ... While these are sentiments I can support and even celebrate, I'm saddened and irritated at whosever spray painted these slogans around campus last weekend.
Since the declarations were discovered, folks have been scrambling like mad to figure out who painted them. Fingers are being pointed in every direction. I've even had a few people ask me if I had anything to do with it. No way — I want to get a work job in college administration some day. Vandalizing
a campus would not look good on my resume.
To be honest, I don't have any idea who these artistically-inclined activists are. I do want them to know, however, that they've done a pretty boneheaded thing.
Chris Hampton in a Lawrence graduate student in higher education.
There's an old feminist saying that goes something like, "A woman has to work twice as hard as a man to be considered half as good." A similar principle will apply to gay, lesbian and bisexual people when we're attacked by smear campaigns and the hackneyed images which are sure to surface in the coming weeks. We all must be on our best behavior. Make a statement if you want to, but please, for the rest of us, leave your paint cans at home.
We're going to be seeing some very ugly rhetoric from the antigay organizers in the next few months. They'll try — again — to portray all lesbian, gay and bisexual people as criminal, anti-family, deviant and perverted. Perhaps a few people in the queer community have forgotten some of the unbelievable sputtering by Simply Equal's opponents last spring, such as when the Reverend Leo Barbee claimed to the city commission that gay people like to roll around in feces. Playing into those stereotypes by wielding cans of Krylon is just what John Watkins and his followers want. Those of us in the queer community who are upstanding citizens who don't fit the vicious stereotypes spread by the radical right stand to suffer immeasurable from the actions of one or two irresponsible vandals.
The city of Lawrence, barely recovered from the original battle to get sexual orientation added to the human relations ordinance, is gearing up for a big challenge to the rights of gay, lesbian and bisexual people led by John Watkins and the Teddy Roosevelt Republicans. These extremists already have shown their complete lack of integrity with their recent antics at a "public" political meeting, where they chased off journalists and people opposed to their agenda and registered people to vote, a flagrant violation of the law. These people will stop at nothing in their attempts to force their religious beliefs on the rest of the city, and for any member of the queer community to slip up now will reflect poorly on all of us.
Is there a place for confrontational politics and anger within the lesbigray rights movement? I believe there is. I think we have every right to be angry about the lies spread about us and the hatred to which we are subjected. However, committing a felony is not constructive civil disobedience.
SUBJECT TO CHANGE
By Shawn Trimble