4A
Thursday, August 31, 1995
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
THE ISSUE: FREE CLASSES
KU profits from free classes
In the near future, University of Kansas students might find themselves enrolled with members of the University community who usually don't sit behind a classroom desk.
While employees would benefit from increased knowledge, the University would be enhanced by a better-educated work force. Everyone would win.
Chancellor Robert Hemenway has proposed offering all full-time employees a unique opportunity. With his plan, employees could enroll in a three-hour course each semester, free of charge.
Ultimately, this initiative would benefit both University employees as individuals and the University community as a whole.
Provided there is space available, and the class would not interfere with other job responsibilities employees could
Hemenway's proposal to offer full-time KU employees a free class enriches the lives of staff and students alike
work begin or finish working toward a degree. Additionally, they could enhance their skills or simply explore avenues of learning which may enhance their lives.
KU offers stimulating courses taught by talented faculty. Everyone involved in the educational process, including full-time employees, should have the chance to benefit from this wealth of information. If classes are free, employees may find the time and inspiration to engage in the purely academic side of the University.
And, in the end, offering free classes to employees would ensure that all those associated with KU could participate in its primary objective — education.
AIMEE WITTMAN FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD.
THE ISSUE: DISTRIBUTED ENROLLMENT
KU needs enrollment plan
The distributed, computerized enrollment plan promised for the Spring 1995 semester is a source of embarrassment for the University. Instead of sitting in front of computer terminals or using the telephone to enroll, students still wait in long lines outside of the Enrollment Center.
The plan to begin distributed enrollment has been postponed indefinitely. The University needs to ask some tough questions of those involved with this fizzled project. Why were problems key to the success of distributed enrollment not foreseen in the planning? Money and time has been wasted on this effort, one that other schools already have accomplished.
Other Big Eight schools, including the University of Missouri, have been using computerized or telecommunication enrollment for several semesters. This University, which is so concerned with its standing among its peers,
Distributed enrollment would shorten lines at enrollment and allow KU to catch up with rival universities
needs to get the job done.
The current enrollment process' time consumption and lack of effectiveness both have become traditions of sorts at KU. Students dread add/drop almost as much as finals. On tours of the University and during orientation, new students hear of the headaches and long lines they will face in the years ahead of them. And learning the rules and regulations does not shorten the lines stretching into the rotunda of Strong Hall.
Where is the plan to begin distributed enrollment at KU? According to the registrar, back at square one. Where should it be? In place at 151 Strong Hall. The students want the new plan. The administration wants the new plan. It would be good for KU. Why is it not here?
eff MacNelly / CHICAGO TRIBUNE
KELLY DIETRICH FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
Battle for equality is paying off for women
Recently, American women marked the 75th anniversary of the passage of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, the constitutional benchmark of the women's suffrage movement. Unfortunately for many women, what should have been a glorious ray of sunlight beaming down on a 20th Century of accomplishment for women never broke through the stormy August of 1995.
The confident, fire-eyed torchbearer of equal opportunity, Shannon Faulkner, stumbled and could not finish her race. Mike Tyson, a convicted and unrepentant rapist, stepped forward from his cell into the ring to collect a few million in reward money. Several visible football players and coaches spent the waning weeks of summer vacation getting in a few extra wife whacks before hitting the gridiron. Jane Roe, the living, breathing pseudonym attached to the most defining and symbolic court decision in history for all women, changed teams.
COLLEEN MCCAIN
Editor
DAVID WILSON
Managing editor, news
ASHLEY MILLER
Managing editor, planning & design
TOM EBILEN
General manager, news adviser
But was this past month really a cruel reminder of how much farther women must travel before reaching the equal and respected footing most of us men enjoy on the plateau of male smugness? Or did this past anniversary mark a truly unnished moment for celebration? Perhaps, like many anniversaries, it simply marked an arbitrary period of time with little significance other than our
Editors
Heaps & Special Sectioses · Deedra Allison
Editorial · Heather Lawrence
Associate Editorial · Sarah Morrison
Campus · Virginia Margarthen
Campus · Tennant College
Associate Campus · Paul Tudd
Sports · Jenni Carlson
Associate Sports · Tom Erickson
Kim Lee
Wire · Robert Allen
John Martin is a second year law school student from Lawrence.
STEPHANIE UTLEY
Business manager
MATT SHAW
Retail sales manager
JAY STEINER
Sales and marketing adviser
CATHERINE ELLSWORTH
Technology coordinator
Jane Roe? The symbol o women's choice and contro over their bodies took a different path. Who will remember the specifics of her new political agenda or beliefs? Few. Instead, we will remember that one woman's decision twenty years before set in motion events allowed her to make (hypothetically) the exact opposite decision today. In 1995, she would have the baby she wanted to abort two decades ago. Good for her. She gets to choose, and that's the whole point.
of professional boxing to the status of a Tijuana back alley, donkey/human fornication act. Come one, come all, to see the recently released man of men shower his rage over a continuous lineup of boxing whores.
The Citadel should not lower standards
The minute they raised their hands, the coaches and athletes who played whack-a-spouse this summer reserved for themselves a special room in hell. But, notably, these cases came to light in a very public fashion with a telling public reaction: disgust. No one tsk-tsked the beatings except the batterers themselves and support staff in charge of team public relations. In fact, the firings and suspensions punished (arguably not strongly enough) abusive behavior that will no longer be kept in the dark or quietly commended.
Business Staff
We have had the opportunity to read two opinions on the Shannon Faulkner vs. The Citadel fiasco. I would like to offer one male's opinion.
And what of Tyson, the Pied Piper of sensitivity from the Donahue/Alda School of Male Feminism? Like his brethren in the football world, he stands tall as a beacon of the boorish behavior quickly becoming intolerable in our culture. For what it's worth, the Tyson show has taken on all the trappings of a freak act. His overly choreographed behavior has transcended the carnival-like level
Campus mgr ... Meredith Hanning
Regional mgr ... Tom Ducet
National mgr ... Heather Barnes
Special Sections mgr ... Heather Nielsen
Product Management ... Krette Ng
Marketing director ... Konan Hauser
Public Relations director ... Beth Cattell
Finance manager ... John Wasserman
Classified mgr ... Heather Vetter
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Poor Shannon Faulkner. Her story evokes pity and not because the overwrought, overweight young woman acted like such a child. She didn't. Instead she gets my sympathy for her prideful humanness. Her proud pronouncements of kicking butt and taking names demonstrated typically ridiculous male behavior at its best, and, frankly, shows at the very least that women now can fall as hard and far in the public eye for all the right reasons.
obsession with marking time at regular intervals. Regardless, on the eve of Hillary Rodham Clinton's trip to China for the Fourth World Conference on Women, these events bombard us with enough coincidence to
STAFF COLUMNIST
cause us to pause and reflect.
First, what is wrong with having all male/female schools? If someone wants to attend a unisex school, he/she should have that choice. Freedom of choice is politically correct, is it not?
If Shannon Faulkner wanted to attend The Citadel because there were no other schools that offered the same opportunities, and she met the same entrance standards as her male counterparts, I could accept her being admitted. For now, it's nothing more than a hollow court victory.
Finally, The Citadel also disqualified her for not meeting its fitness standards. The Supreme Court forced The Citadel to lower its standards and admit Faulkner. In other words, she gained admission through the back door.
Second, Shannon Faulkner never desired to attend The Citadel. She just wanted to see if she could win a legal battle in the name of women's rights.
Robert Farris Overland Park senior
What happens to all the males who meet the newly imposed court standards, but could not meet the old Citadel
standards? Should they be admitted too? Should The Citadel drop all of its standards?
Roachbuster grateful to leave duties behind him
When you're all alone
Pick up the phone
Who you gonna' call?
Roachbuster — my alter ego when I was nine or so.
One of the problems my family's little green house had was bad plumbing, which attracted roaches.
STAFF COLUMNIST
I can't describe how great it is not to be Roachbuster anymore.
I can still hear the "Ghostbusters" theme song in the back of my head.
I've got access to expensive weight-training equipment and computers without spending a single cent, as well as to cheap medical help. I'm living the ultimate freebie, and all I have to do is keep a good grade point average And that's what's unreal.
cause of the roaches, there were many nights that I had to do my cape and bug spray to become "Roachbuster" with my trusty side kick "Grandpa."
Unfortunately, it seemed that
The worst times were when the sewer pipes under the house would clog. We would have a huge inflow of insects and I, Roachbustah, had to go into overtime. Overtime meant pulling out my grandpa's hard-heeled dress shoes and stomping on the bugs.
It seemed as if the battles raged forever; boy vs. roaches.
every house we moved into had the same problem. Now I've concluded that it was every house in my neighborhood that had that problem.
And when they were over, I'd survey the dank, dark battlefield and see that "Roachbuster" was victorious. He had completed his mission and could get some sleep before school the next day. (Every good superhero talks about himself in the third person)
As gross as it may sound, it was probably one of the finest memories I have of childhood. Being Roachbuster made something unpleasant, fun.
Now I sleep in my own bed, the living standard a few levels above what I had. And it all seems so unreal.
Being here at KU seems a little unreale. It's not a question of whether I will eat today but what will I choose to eat — a salad, pizza, stir fry? When I was in kindergarten, it was a huge sacrifice for my grandpa to buy paper and crayons for me.
Now I frequently spend five bucks on notebooks for a personal journal in addition to hundreds spent on textbooks.
Of course, I outgrew Roachbuster, but the roaches stuck around until I left for college.
Before the "Roachbuster" days, the best times were Sundays at midnight watching "Perry Mason." My grandma would be in bed next to me, and my uncle would be sound asleep on my other side. Both of them were big people, so I didn't always like being in the middle, but on cold winter nights in a house with no heat, it was the safest, warmest place to be.
It's so nice not to have to worry about that stuff. It's weird to think that now "roughing it" means killing a fly with a newspaper or not listening to the stereo for a night. I don't have to worry about food or clothes. I can write a check. The scholarship people have me covered.
Rufus Coleman is a Dallas sophomore in journalism.
Except when my uncle had cold feet.
HUBIE
By Greg Hardin