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EDITORIAL: Homecoming week is here again, but only greeks and alumni seem to care. For most students, it's just a week like any other See kansan.com for more opinions and Free for All comments
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2006 WWW.KANSAN.COM
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PAGE 5A
OUR VIEW
Homecoming week no longer matters to students
This week is supposed to be different from other weeks. The crimson and blue should be flowing out of your veins. The enthusiasm on campus should be bubbling. This week everyone should feel proud that they are a Jayhawk because it's homecoming week.
Do you feel that? We certainly don't. A week with festivities has
now turned into just your average week for most students. It's a week where sororities and fraternities get together and have an excuse to party. The week brings in alumni to the football game for the big parade, but for the average student it's just another week in the long fall semester.
The days of excitement during homecoming week are gone.
Student Union Activities has tried to revive the week with a big-time performer, but it's done little. If you were to survey students on Wescoe Beach, we would venture to say most would not realize it's homecoming week.
You can only do Can-struction and Jayhawk Idol for so many years before you get tired of the
tradition. Week-long events do little to raise the enthusiasm and pride of being a Jayhawk. The spectacle and pageantry that once was homecoming has lost its luster.
Floats are still built by greek houses and other student organizations, but it doesn't seem like they are as important as they were when homecoming
included all students.
Over the past two years the University has tried to bring excitement to the week but it has done very little. From having a block party in South Park to the new Spirit Sprint 5K run, little has been done to include not only the alumni but students as well.
Now homecoming is marked
by the special shirts made by the greek chapters to represent the week. It's about alumni returning to the football game and walking through campus to reflect on the good times. But for the students, it's just marked as the week before fall break.
Women should focus on mind, not body
COMMENTARY
According to a fashion magazine that I idly perused some days ago in a waiting room, large, sultry lips are a fabulous feature in 2006. Long legs spell success. Plentiful bosoms have replaced small boyish frames. And very invasive, below-the-belt procedures to make females appear more like the ladies in professional porn are on the rise. Yes, the appearance of virtually every feminine body part has become a fashion statement.
Thanks to the obsessive and unlimited beautification of media, advertisements, the idea of "success" for women, and boyfriend's beloved pornography collections, the National Organization of Women finds that at least 80 percent of all women are unsatisfied with the appearance of their bodies. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of individuals who go under the knife for cosmetic procedure are also female. And the "ideal" image — hidden behind a plethora of stylists, editors, technology and airbrushes — is not even feasibly attainable.
This idea is particularly harmful to the status of gender equality, which is far from realized in the United States. In 2005 the Census Bureau reported that women earn 54-60 cents for every dollar that a man earns in management, professional, scientific and technical services. The U.S. also has an absurd record of gender equality in politics More than five dozen countries (including developing nations such as Rwanda, Uganda, Argentina, South Africa and Mozambique) have considerably greater percentages of women in government than does the U.S. These statistics seem to be easily forgotten in our nation.
Women are clearly as capable as their male counterparts. Studies have shown that the sexes differ slightly in types of cognitive ability, but the average man is no more
BY ALISON KIELER
KANSAN COLUMNIST
OPINION@KANSAN.COM
Obviously, cosmetic procedures are painful and sometimes risky. They are also expensive, unless paid for by parents or significant others in a heartwarming effort to make their sweetheart feel valued. But the increasing popularity of cosmetic surgery is unjust for a more significant reason: By consenting to the idea that cosmetic surgery is necessary for relationships or careers, women undermine their intellectual capabilities and their value as human beings. They succumb to the idea that women are only valuable in the world as aesthetically pleasing creatures.
intelligent than the average woman. Additional research suggests that gender differences are primarily influenced by cultural standards. For instance, because little girls are generally encouraged to be communicative and conscientious, they are more likely than males to communicate well and to be conscientious about obtaining good grades, but less likely to pursue "manly" disciplines related to math or science. Whether women's strengths are culturally learned or not, however, women have proven that they can be capable leaders and brilliant mathematicians and scientists.
Almost fifty years ago women protested their societal status by tossing symbols of oppression in the can — Cosmo and Playboy magazines included — but women today continue to value their manipulative sex appeal over their intellectual capabilities. The power of the female body may be intoxicating, but it is easily abused. At our own University, an academic institution, the most recognized female students are cheerleaders in miniskirts, babes in swimsuit calendars, and, now, Playboy bunnies. It is no wonder that women complain about a lack of respect; many women have barely begun to respect themselves as anything more than eye candy.
Alas, it is unlikely that gender equality will be achieved in America if all women aspire to join the porn industry.
It is past time that all women learn to value themselves as diverse and capable human beings. Women were never intended to conform to a status-quo image to please mankind. In fact, men will continue to love women in all shapes and all sizes. When more women begin to truly respect themselves, more men might even begin to take women seriously.
This month, on Wednesday the 18th, is Love Your Body Day. Ladies, start a revolution. It's time to trash the beauty magazines.
Kieler is a Lenexa senior in political science and International studies.
LACKING SUPERIOR INTELLIENCE, HUSKER FANS DEMONSTRATE THEIR PHYSICAL SUPERIORITY OVER THE TEMPERATURE PARALYZED
Grant Snider/KANSAN
TEMPORARILY PARALYZED
Students, faculty upset by provost's decision
The recent decision by Provost Richard Lariviere revoking student votes in the choice of new faculty members will not endear him to antediluvian "KU Faculty of the Late 60s" like myself. First appointed during unprecedented growth at the University, two-thirds of us are retired or retiring; one-third remain full-time. We chose to stay at KU.
It took a lot of sweat to adopt a University Senate Code with clause 10.4.2 that secured the right of student voting representation. We
》 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
ers and students in the trenches, and with our own indifference and timidity. Preoccupied with grade point averages and annual faculty evaluations, we have been blind-sided and disenfranchised by those who see themselves not as as servants of the community but as provosts.
As reported in the Kansan on Tuesday ("Graduate students no longer have vote", 10/3), I am disappointed by Provost Lariviere's decision to forbid graduate student from voting on faculty hires. I am even further disturbed by the "clarification" printed in the Kansan on Wednesday, October 4, suggesting that the Provost's decision is a "reinterpretation of existing policy.
Gerald Mikkelson, professor of Russian, East European, and Eurasian studies
I have read the relevant section of Senate Code Section XIX. That
Louis Mora for the editorial board.
A recent stint (2003-2006) as an elected member of the Faculty and University Councils convinced me, to my great regret, that not only 10.4.2, but also University governance as a whole by faculty and students has been seriously attenuated since the 1970s.
So, from my perspective, the Kansan got it right the first time. With all due respect, what the administration sees as mere "reinterpretation" appears to us as disenfranchise and denial.
The fault lies with the entrenchment of a professional class of University administrators,far removed from the needs of teach-
Andrew Ledbetter
President, Communication
Studies Graduate Student
Organization
Lawrence doctoral candidate
risked not getting tenure by fighting for justice inside the University.
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section is designed to protect student involvement by requiring their participation on policy-making committees. Specifically, the code says that "students are not necessarily included" in "committees which are concerned with the application of policies to specific individuals or situations," yet says nothing about forbidding students from such committees (19.2.3). I do not see how the Provost's office could interpret it as such.
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to class.
I'm a little hacked off. I won the pie eating contest last year, but there is none this year.
Tom: I'm sorry I called you during class. Your instructor sounded pissed.
Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. Kansas editors reserve the right to omit comments. Slanderous and obscene statements will not be printed. Phone numbers of all incoming calls
Jeannie "Heavar, sales and marketing adviser
864-7666 or jweaver@kansan.com
I'm pretty sure that half the people became Jewish for Yom Kippur so they didn't have to go
are recorded.
I bet penguins really love Morgan Freeman.
Somebody said yesterday that people who ride scooters are awesome. That is not true.
pisse
图
My pants are at least five inches too long.
5
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Every Gospel in the New Testament tells of the wrath of Jesus against those who were misusing His temple to gain wealth and power. The Gospel according to St. John states: "Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple." (chapter 2, verse 15). The answer is obvious what Jesus would have done to Phill Kline because of his repugnant abuse of God's house. It is equally obvious what voters must do. They must vote him out of office.
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Husker fan: cartoon misunderstood
Thank you for writing a story that showed the Daily Nebraskan point of view on the "controversial cartoon." "Daily Nebraskan comic sparks discussion, criticism," 10/4) I am from Kansas and it embarrassed me to see ignorant Kansans writing to the DN to express their disdain for the cartoon. If they would have been at the game, they would have known that the DN was commenting on the lack of attention Nebraska fans showed (doing "the wave") while Eric Washington was hurt.
The "fat joke" about Mangino is no mystery, especially with the KU shirts that read, "Our coach could eat your coach." It's not the first time a newspaper has poked fun at him. Jason Whitlock makes fun of Mangino constantly in his Kansas City Star column. I am glad to hear that Washington has recovered and I think Kansas fans need to know the facts before throwing a fit.
Thank you again for writing the facts, letting people make their own opinions, and not sensationalizing the story (unlike the Omaha TV station).
Eric Siders University of Nebraska-Lincoln sophomore
>> LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Asking the question "What would Jesus do?" is an excellent method to reflect on the ethics of one's actions. That question came to mind when I read about how Attorney General Phill Kline was going to various churches to further his reelection campaign. His own campaign memo states that one objective for attending these worship services would be to meet "money" people for the purpose of getting large campaign contributions.
Kline's methods violate Jesus' teachings
EDITORIAL BOARD
Jonathan Kealing, Erick R. Schmidt, Gabriella Souza, Frank Tankard, Dave Ruigh, Steve Lynn, McKay Stangler and Louis Wens
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