4A
Thursday, September 7, 1995
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
THE ISSUE: LIVING GROUPS
Diversity is part of learning
Living arrangements that group students together based on their academic interests may exclude students from new experiences.
The University of Kansas already has such programs and hopes to initiate more as early as next year. A floor exists in McCollum Hall for only honors students, and many students who study fine arts live in Hashinger Hall.
David Ambler, vice chancellor for student affairs, said that a freshman and sophomore task force would be looking at services this year to lower the attrition rate.
The idea behind the learning communities, also implemented at the University of Missouri, is to make students more comfortable at their new schools by grouping them with students who have similar academic interests. But this comfort could be damaging when students are injected into the real world.
Creating living arrangements based on academic similarities between people could encourage the formation of a barrier to new ideas and interests. This defeats the highly celebrated "college experience" that allows students to come in contact with many different people with varying interests.
Separation by majors would alienate students from one another and would negate the college experience for many
Not only could the groups alienate students from other students with different majors and interests, but they could prove to be a waste of time and effort because college students routinely change their majors several times during their academic careers.
Universities should offer support programs for incoming freshmen but should be careful not to group students together in a way that would discourage them from interacting with people of different nationalities, majors, opinions and interests. Mentor programs allow students to connect with someone similar to themselves without alienating those different from them. College life involves meeting new people with an array of interests. This exposure is the best kind of learning.
CHARITY JEFFRIES FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD.
THE ISSUE: CONCERT BEHAVIOR
Fans should respect artists
A concert is not an opportunity for people with a low threshold for entertainment to do whatever they wish to have a good time. It is, in fact, a performance by an artist or artists who work very hard at their craft in spite of whatever image they may portray. It is becoming increasingly alarming to see and hear about bands having things thrown at them and to see the abuse that is directed toward performers.
Recent examples include Woodstock '94 and Lollapalooa where mud, grass and plastic bottles were thrown, and the Jayhawk Music Festival where a shower of plastic bottles rained down on the crowd and the band for almost 10 minutes.
The Reverend Horton Heat's set was cut short after a two liter plastic bottle slammed into the front of Jim Wallace's
Antics of unruly crowds give the Lawrence music scene the reputation of being dangerous and unsafe for musicians
expensive upright bass; a millisecond later, the Reverend himself, Jim Heath, was struck in the face.
The participants in this fiasco probably would cry foul if the situation were reversed, as it was at the Bad Brains show this past summer when fans were injured by a belligerent musician.
If you wish to have a "music scene" in this town, then show some appreciation. If you don't like the music, stay home, but do not abuse the artists who come here to play. If Lawrence earns a reputation as a troublesome place to play, rather than risk injury, bands will simply opt to play elsewhere.
BRIAN RUNK FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Jeff MacNetly/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Dole's campaign defames our real American values
In spite of the incessant Dorothy jokes and queries about the absence of a big belt buckle on my person, never in all my travels have I been ashamed to say I was from Kansas.
Maybe if Dole were sincere in his criticism, his arguments could be given some credence, but he hasn't
Then came Bob Dole's latest presidential bid.
Apparently, in Dole's view, we shouldn't waste time talking about prisons versus crime prevention, long-term health care or corporate welfare reform. Instead, let's address the real problems in America. There is too much violence in movies, no one speaks proper English anymore, and kids are learning about the Klan, Toni Morrison and Malcolm X. The fall of the American empire.com.
In an enlightened effort to bring the election back to the real issues, Dole has launched another attack on the "embarrassed-to-be-American liberal elites" whom he feels threaten our American values.
The last time Dole had a target, he aimed at violence in Hollywood. This time, in a speech to the American Legion, he has targeted both Americans whose first language is not English and those who wish to change the national history standards to include minorities and women.
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about it doesn't change the Iowa poll results.
said a word about the decadence of Hollywood since the media stopped listening. Certainly the problem hasn't been solved. The continual bombardment of violent acts on television still leads to the desensitization of old and young alike. It is just that talking
The spin doctors should have realized that the middle class wouldn't buy into criticism of the entertainment industry. It occupies too much of their lives. Dole needed an issue that would polarize people, preferably one which would work on the good old boy/liberal elite angle to reach middle America. To advocate English becoming the country's official language while trying to silence those who would broaden history lessons seems to fit the bill perfectly.
I wonder what American values these ideas really threaten, though. Our country was founded on the ideals of tolerance, fairness and acceptance, and while these may
have been marred by racism, oppression and the demand for assimilation, our strength always has come from diversity, not rigidity.
Dole is stepping away from our traditional American values, not the liberal elitists, whoever they are.
Don't let Dole push your buttons. We shouldn't fear having our history shown the way it really occurred. We should embrace it and learn what we can. We need to accept all our peoples' histories as our own and step forward together, not hide behind some white-washed version of how we would have liked it to have been.
In the same vein, we have had multiple languages here for hundreds of years. It's inconvenient, more expensive but infinitely more enriching as well. Marginalizing non-English speakers isn't going to solve anything.
Of course there is room for discussion. These aren't black and white issues, but if Dole continues his arguments past his next dose of Geritol I'll be pleasantly surprised.
More likely, they're just more red herrings designed to draw your attention away from the real issues affecting our nation.
Todd Hattis is a Lyndon senior in social welfare.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Gay rights support: a Lawrence tradition
Before Lawrence again becomes embroiled as to civil rights for the local populace regardless of sexual orientation, let's review what the amended city ordinance DOES NOT say;
(1) The ordinance does not establish quotas for employers, nor does it force employees to hire applicants lacking the qualifications needed to satisfy job requirements;
(2) The ordinance does not force churches or religious organizations, non-profit fraternal associations, or private social groups to change their values, membership or operations. Rethere these folks are free to continue to offer their
services, jobs and housing to their own members.
(3) The ordinance does not require all landlords to rent to people of differing orientations. Exempted from the law are landlords whose housing units accommodate two families wherein one is the landlord's family, and landlords whose units accommodate fewer than five renters where the landlord's family also resides;
(4) The amendment does not supersede any criminal law in Kansas. In no way does it affect or cancel existing state statutes outlawing certain sexual practices;
(5) The amendment does not force local citizens to change their religious, moral or personal beliefs.
For example, ensuring the
civil rights of Hare Krishnas doesn't mean the city endorses this belief system or is recruiting its members to live in Lawrence.
Lawrence has a proud tradition of leading the country with civil rights legislation. A full seven years before similar legislation was passed by Congress, our city approved a law forbidding discrimination in housing on the basis or race, color, religion or national origin. Breaking ground for justice is nothing new to our city, whether it involves protecting a human choice, (i.e., being Jewish, Catholic or Quaker) or protecting a human condition (i.e. race, gender or disability).
■ Elizabeth A. Gowds
Lawrence graduate student
■ Melba J. Sutton
Lawrence graduate student
Calvin Klein ads were nothing for Americans to get hot about
Anyone tuned in to AM talk radio this week knows that the new, now defunct Calvin Klein advertising campaign was a topic of much discourse.
Calvin Klein recently pulled the ads which feature young teens
STAFF
COLUMNIST
underwear and jeans. While the photo ads on buses and in magazines prompted some concern, the real controversy focused on the television commercials.
One commercial featured a young girl in jeans and a tank top posing for an unseen camera.
man. The voice of an obviously older male made latent sexual comments toward the timid girl.
Radio callers were appalled. Most said the advertisements bordered on child pornography and encouraged child sexual abuse.
While the TV ads were sexually explicit and did border on child pornography, some ad opponents overestimated the ads' power.
Those outraged callers should have realized that 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 television ads may have violated societal norms about adult sexual innuendoes toward teens, but a boycott of Calvin Klein products never would have stopped the real problem — child sexual abuse.
They're not going to eliminate all the things that might trigger a child molester to abuse. The outside forces that spark molesters' internal drive to do so come from everywhere.
But even though the ads have been pulled, opponents should not sit back and relax. Instead, they should head right for the child molestation war front — the Kansas Sexual Predator law.
According to the law, the state can keep people convicted of specific sex crimes in hospitals, even after they have served their criminal sentences, to ensure their complete rehabilitation before releasing them into society.
Though a Kansas district judge dismissed three legal actions against the law Aug. 28, the Kansas Supreme Court will examine its constitutional grounds at a Sept. 11 hearing.
in one of the dismissed legal actions, attorneys for Kenneth Hay, a convicted child molester, argued for Hay's release on the grounds that he isn't getting the required type of counseling.
Hay had been convicted of five counts of aggravated indecent solicitation in Olathe and had served 38 months in prison. Last spring, as he was about to be released, Hay was placed in the custody of the State Social and Rehabilitative Services, where he has been undergoing rehabilitative counseling.
Here is where your work is needed. Calvin Klein pulling his ads won't stop child molestation, but making sure this law remains in effect will stop repeat offenses.
Write to the Kansas Supreme Court. Tell your legislators you want people like Hay to be cured before they're released. Tell them you care more about your children's safety than both the rights of the convicted and the picture on the television screen.
KANSAN STAFF
Nicole Kennedy is an Overland Park Junior in Journalism.
COLLEEN MCCAIN
Editor
DAVID WILSON
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By Greg Hardin