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LETTER TO THE EDITOR: On this Disability Awareness Day, consider the inequality of the transportation system at the University. See kansan.com for more opinions and Free for All comments
MONDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2006 WWW.KANSAN.COM
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
PAGE 5A
》 OUR VIEW
Degree gap breeds inequality
It has become a kind of cultural consensus that in order to maximize earning potential, a student must go to college.
Not so long ago, a high school diploma was viewed as essential, while a bachelor's degree was the end goal of those more committed to academic pursuit. But within the lifetime of those of us currently enrolled at the University, the situation evolved.
A high school diploma became just another step on the way to college, and the bachelor's degree became the essential element of success. This was mostly encouraging, as more students chose college over immediate jobs, and a new Great Enlightenment sometimes seemed imminent.
Now, however, the rush to higher education has created a disheartening and somewhat ironic problem. The pursuit of graduate or professional degrees by a small minority of students has bred a widening gap in the respective earning power of
bachelor's degrees and graduate degrees.
A recent Wall Street Journal report showed that since 2000, the only workers who have seen an income increase are those with graduate degrees. Those with just a bachelor's degree saw a drop in income of more than 3 percent, while those with graduate degrees saw a rise of 3 percent. The group with the biggest increase was made up of those with an M.B.A., J.D., or M.D., who represent just 2 percent of American workers but who saw their earnings shoot up more than 10 percent to an impressive $119,343.
This trend may or may not indicate an intellectual revival in the United States, but it certainly points to a solidifying gap between the educated elites and everyone else in society. Those who come from households with preexisting earning power have inherently greater access to education and can worry less about debt accrued by that education. Conversely, those who begin in poorer households are less likely to pursue higher education, whether by their own choice or as a result of intrinsic cultural and economic barriers.
The gap between educated elites and everyone else is easy for many of us to overlook, but each generational shift has cemented the gap's growth. Higher education is not for everyone, and the world needs skilled laborers as much as it needs attorneys. But in an ideal world, every young American should at least have the option of pursuing a bachelor's or graduate degree.
We must take steps to close the earnings gap, so that those who choose alternate paths to happiness are not unjustly penalized for their equally worthy choice.
McKay Stangler for the editorial board
Welcome to HIGH TIMES ASSISTED LIVING COMMUNITY
MARIJUANA LINKED TO ALZHEIMER'S TREATMENT A HIT IN THE FIELD OF GERIATRICS
Grant Snider/KANSAN
》 LETTER TO THE EDITOR
You remember it from elementary school — the short bus, the funny van, the special kids' car. We might have called it different names, but the idea was the same: We were placed on different buses based on physical and intellectual ability. Though this may seem like a quaint practice from days past, we continue to sort people onto separate buses according to ability. The KU on Wheels buses are accessible only to able-bodied students. Although KU on Wheels is funded by each student every semester through a $16 campus transportation fee, many students are not able to use the buses. As a substitute, the University of Kansas provides liftvans to students with physical disabilities as a kind of consolation prize.
However, by preventing access to campus buses and a system that does not have to be scheduled in advance, the University also prevents full integration of students with disabilities into campus life. The University takes pride in having one of the top special education departments in the country and hosting research on disability issues, yet many of its students with disabilities are not being fully integrated into the campus.
FREE FOR ALL
Call 864-0500
Dividing people into different groups and transportation systems based on their ability makes a bad situation worse by causing alienation.
According to Melissa Manning, associate director of Disability Resources, about 2,000 students at the University have some form of disability. Yet very few are aware of the practice that separates transportationally-disadvantaged disabled Jayhawks from others. By isolating students with physical and sensory disabilities from those who don't have these types of disabilities, a climate of misunderstanding, devaluation and fear grows.
That is why I encourage you to attend Disability Awareness Day, today on Wescow Beach. Disability is not a sickness or a defect or something that needs to be cured. Just like one's race and gender, disability is neither good nor bad — it's just a part of who people are, a fact of life. Please come, participate and learn
Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. Kansan editors reserve the right to omit comments. Slanderous and obscene statements will not be printed. Phone numbers of all incoming calls are recorded.
Katey Birge
Denver senior
President of AbleHawks
图
I saw a girl wearing a K-State sweatshirt. Either lose the sweatshirt or move to Manhattan.
So I called one of those sex lines and I got a busy signal. Now I'm calling you. What do I do?
To the guy in Wescoe who says Chicago is the worst city ever: You
Could the opinion section get anymore liberal?
To Will the Alpha: Your legs are extra sexy and now that it is winter I won't get to see them anymore. That makes me sad.
Yo parking lot, I hate you.
I'm at Anschutz and the guy sitting behind me is farting loudly.
I'm locked in a bathroom at Audio
I just saw someone driving like a prick. Oh, guess what? He was from Johnson County.
Where is my Wall Street Journal?
This is unacceptable.
I failed my genetics test.
COMMENTARY
social change means more than bending down to help
Ever since the Students for a Democratic Society attracted nationwide media coverage for their radical tactics in support of the civil rights movement of the early 1960s, college campuses have been recognized centers of political and cultural rebellion in America.
The modern-day descendants of those with such anti-establishment impulses express themselves in a variety of different forms that any college student would immediately recognize: vegetarianism, concern for the Third World, contempt for American foreign policy and, last but not least, patchouli.
Walk through Wescoe Beach on any given afternoon and you'll see what I mean. Awareness-raising
The University of Kansas is no exception to this rule. Benefit concerts for impoverished nations, guest speakers from international aid organizations and student groups that speak out against oppression and injustice are staples of campus life.
BY BEN WILKINS
KANSAN COLUMNIST
OPINIONONKANSAN.COM
supporters of victims of the Darfur genocide, recruiters from Teach for America, and perhaps even a representative or two from an animal rights group all vie for the attention of socially-aware students.
You don't see this kind of thing on any street corner. It is the particular nature of university campuses — which are in large part training schools for the future elite stratum of American society — that produces such a thriving environment for such seemingly radical causes. And that, as Jack Nicholson says in "The Departed," is what you call a paradox.
The French, in all of their righteous and unbathed wisdom, have a phrase for this type of social
awareness: noblesse oblige. Noblesse oblige (literally "noble obligation") stems from the notion that those with education, wealth and prestige have a responsibility to care for the other 99 percent of the world that has none of these things.
been denied access to institutions and privileges that their teachers have come to take for granted. In such a situation, the inequality of our education system is only amplified.
The problem with many modern-day proponents of noblesse oblige is that, despite their best intentions, their actions typically do little to alleviate the world's problems in any fundamental way. At best, they provide temporary relief for the populations they are aimed at. Just as often, however, they serve to reinforce the structures of inequality rather than dismantle them.
It may be a difficult pill to swallow, but it must be recognized that noblesse oblige is a fundamentally undemocratic way of thinking about how to change the world we live in. Genuine social change — if that is really what we desire — will only happen when the "victims" are no longer viewed as passive repositories for the altruism of elites, but rather as potentially active participants in their own destinies.
As much respect as I have for my friends and acquaintances who have taken two years off from their career goals to teach children in impoverished rural and inner-city schools, I think they have much more to learn than they do to teach
Teach For America is a good example. According to the organization's mission statement, its goal is "to enlist our nation's most promising future leaders in the movement to eliminate educational inequality." In practice, however, this means that recent college graduates end up working with children who have
Wilkins is a Kansas City, Mo. senior in history
COMMENTARY
everyone may be same on the inside, but world is not fair
Sitting at a coffee shop with a few friends after class, I stared at the front page of the newspaper, frowning at the melancholy headlines as my friends discussed another all-too-common story about religious violence.
After a long, dead silence, one of my friends piped up. He was convinced he could explain humanity with a package of M&Ms.
He pulled the familiar brown bag from his backpack and spilled the little circles of chocolate across the table.
"What do you see?" he asked.
Rolling my eyes at what I had seen and drooled over since I was 2 years old. I duly responded, "different colored candies."
"What do you see?" he asked
He asked me to pick any two and eat them.
I decided on a red and a yellow. "They taste the same," I said. "Exactly!"
BY YELENA PAVLIK
KANSAN COLUMNIST
OPINIONKANSAN.COM
elementary as comparing
Elementary as comparing humans to M&Ms may seem, the point, the same point that we have
been hearing since grade school, remained the same: While on the outside people are different, inside people are all alike.
Thinking about the statement more deeply, I considered my friends.
All of them had finished at least 12 years of school, and of course knew how to read, most had a secure economic situation, were healthy and had tangible prospects for their future.
Philp M. Harter from Stanford University's School of Medicine conducted a study in which he shrank the world down to 100 people. The numbers he came up with were not quite expected.
But I also knew that not everyone was as fortunate.
"Fifty-seven would be Asian, 21 European, 14 would be from the Western Hemisphere (both north and south), and eight would be African. Fifty-two of the people would be female, 48 male, 70 would be nonwhite, 70 would be non-Christian, 89 would be heterosexual, six people would possess 59 percent of the entire world's wealth, and all six would be from the USA. Eighty of the one hundred would live in substandard housing, 70 would be unable to read, 50 would suffer from malnutrition, one (yes, only one) would have a college education, and one would own a computer (a year ago no one had a computer)."
After reading Harter's summary, I was somewhat shocked that in a world of 100, I would be, for the most part, in the minority.
Perhaps humans are somewhat similar to chocolate covered candies.
》TALK TO US
Jonathan Kestling, editor
864-454 or jon.kestling@kansan.edu
Erick R. Schmidt, managing editor
864-454 or eschmidt@kansan.edu
Gabrielle Soora, manager
864-454 or guozu@kansan.edu
Frank Tankard opinion editor
864-4924 or frank.tankard@kansan.edu
There is always news of a war, famine, abuse and disease. It is often easier to overlook that a small portion of the world may be suffering and go on with daily life. The harsh reality, however, smacks us on the back when the numbers are spilled out on the table.
So go ahead, walk toward your sealed-off window, take a moment to think for yourself, consider reality outside of your friends, life and comfortable world and peek through the shutters to see what life looks like on the other side.
Dave Ruigh, associate opinion editor
864-4924 or druigh@kansan.com
Kyle Hoedl, business manager
864-4014 or khoedl@kansan.com
Lindsey Shirrack, sales manager 864-4462 or iishirak@kansan.com
Pavilik is a Plano, Texas, sophomore in journalism
Malcolm Gibson, general manager, news adviser
R44-7167 or malhonvakkan.com
What if each time someone opened a bag of M&Ms, only the reds and yellows were eaten and the rest thrown out?
The opportunities that we have, those that often seem ordinary, and the things that we take for granted, the ones we perceive to be our rights, are in fact only privileges.
Jennifer Weaver, sales and marketing adviser
864-7666 or jwever@kansan.com
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EDITORIAL BOARD
4.
Jonathan Realing, Erick R. Schmidt, Gabrielle Soura, Frank Tankard, Dave Ruigh, Steve Lynn, McKay Stangler and Louis Mora
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