The University Daily Kansan emphasizes the First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech. or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
GUEST COMMENTARY: The Free for All needs to return its roots as a place for serious, thoughtful commentary, not a public drunk-dial forum. See kansan.com for more opinions and Free for All comments
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2006 WWW.KANSAN.COM
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
PAGE 5A
OUR VIEW
What if college students had to take an exam mandated by the federal government?
If lawmakers adopt the Department of Education's recommendations, this scenario could become a part of college curricula.
Federal exam idea misguided
The department wants increased accountability for colleges as they attempt to educate students, according to a recent report from the Commission on the Future of Higher Education. But the No Child Left Behindlike recommendation would inconvenience students, who should be working harder anyway.
The report recommends that the federal government provide incentives for states to use the exams. The report gives several examples of tests colleges could use, including the Collegiate Learning Assessment, a test already administered to students at 134 colleges and universities.
The test compares knowledge accumulated between freshman and senior years and "evaluates students' critical thinking, analytic reasoning and written communication ... rather than multiple choice questions."
Students already take enough tests. If students fail to make progress in their college years, that's not entirely a university's fault; students should shoulder the blame.
Average prose literacy has decreased for all levels of educational accomplishment. between 1992 and 2003 and only 66 percent of full-time four-year students complete a degree in six years, according to the report.
College students have to make a better effort. Or the federal government, with its inept bureaucracy, will grade us.
Steve Lynn for the editorial board
The Kansas Highway Patrol now has several unmarked police cars driving normal routes on the road. I don't think this should become common practice of our law enforcement.
While I know this may sound like a gripe, it's not. I have respect for our law enforcement and believe that they should be allowed to use whatever means at their disposal to enforce the law. I do think they are beginning to oversteep their boundaries.
State highway patrol officers have no need to hide in unmarked cars
COMMENTARY
The major purpose for having unmarked police cars on the road is to catch people speeding and other minor infractions. While I recognize this as part of their job, I think the duty of our law enforcement officials is much greater than that. They protect us. They help us in emergencies. The police are not glorified meter-maids.
I'm worried that you think I've been burned by an unmarked police car. I will admit I was stopped once by one. I was let off with a warning and the officer thought it was funny that I followed him for about 20 miles without realizing who he was. When I finally went to pass him I went a little over the limit.
I'm not a speed demon. I don't drive recklessly and I don't break
BY DAN HOYT
KANSAN COLUMNIST
OPINION@KANSAN.COM
the law any more than your average Joe Six-Pack. I just want to be able to feel safe knowing that the guy in an unmarked car without a uniform that just pulled my girlfriend over isn't some serial rapist. And when my girlfriend learns about him being a serial rapist I don't want her to play a life-or-death game of "Where's Waldo" trying to find a cop.
I'm not saying I don't believe there isn't a time and place for undercover cops. I just think there is a better use for our law enforcement. I would rather undercover cops do more important things than trying to fool people on the road. They need to be doing important cop things. Like commandeering civilian vehicles and hanging off that little part underneath the helicopter that they use to land.
FROM THE DICTIONARY OF FORGOTTEN SLANG
GROOVY 1970s
"This Pink Floyd album would make one GREOVY soundtrack to The Wizard of Oe."
Hoyt is a Spearville senior in English
"That Motley Crue concert was GNARLY, dude."
DA BOMB
1990S
"Have you heard of Ace of Bass? They're DABOMB."
TOOL NEW ENTRY
"I can't believe Clay Aiken's career didn't end after American Idol. He's such a TOOL."
GUEST COMMENTARY
Grant Snider/KANSAN
Albright an inspiration for women
I simply cannot imagine being born into an earlier era of U.S. history in which the political rights and ambitions of women were seriously constrained. Yet, until women's equal participation in all parts of society is achieved, victory cannot be claimed. In almost any given career, the higher up in an organization's hierarchy, the fewer women one will encounter.
If you happen to lack a Y chromosome, do not lose hope. We simply need to follow the path of those remarkable women who began the arduous task of shattering glass ceilings. Ladies, to become this generation's next world leaders, we must seek role models in these female pioneers who had enough determination to reconstruct social attitudes of what constitutes a male or female job.
As a woman with career aspirations in the male-operated world of foreign relations, there is one particular woman of whom I am in awe: Former Secretary of State Madeleine Korbel Albright. She was the first female Secretary of State and thus the most powerful woman in the U.S. government (and arguably in the world) during the Clinton administration.
Her story is one of perseverance and accomplishment, and it raises aspirations of what a woman can now achieve. She was born in 1937 in Prague, where her family first fled from the Nazis, and later from communism. She came to the U.S. in 1948 and by the time she was about our age, she was multi-lingual, an undergraduate in political
science at Wellesley, and a citizen of the United States. She went on to attain an assortment of degrees and distinguished positions while also balancing motherhood.
Beginning in 1993, she served for four years as U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations and was then sworn in as the 64th secretary of state on January 23, 1997. During her tenure, she helped change the course of history and made the advancement of women one of her central foreign policy goals.
The visibility of Albright as a strong, effective secretary of state has also helped to accustom the populace to become more comfortable with females in other power positions. Surely, the concept of a woman president is no longer equated with some naive feminist illusion as it might have been just a decade ago. Furthermore, her ultimate American Dream success story, from refugee to highest ranking women in the United States, is also an inspiration for the immigrants who sacrifice everything to seek opportunities in the United States.
Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." Madeleine Albright did just that. Will you?
Former Secretary Madeleine Albright will be speaking tonight at the Lied Center at 8 p.m. For more information: www.doleinstitute.org.
GUEST COMMENTARY
Sarah Stacy
Germantown, Md., senior Student Assistant, Dole Institute
God Save the Free for All
The Free for All has hit rock bottom, and we need look no further than The Kansan's own staff to see why.
Last Wednesday's Kansan featured an apology from editor Jonathan Kealing stating that he had considered removing the section entirely because of recent events, but for the time being it would remain a place where we as students could "tell jokes. Tell stories. State opinions. Laugh with friends. Vent your frustration." Kealing chastised us for having done otherwise, and told us how the Free for All will be put before at least four persons before going to print, in order to be more closely edited.
Oddly enough, more editing is the last thing the Free for All needs.
Started in the early '90s, The Kansan's Free for All was one of the first of its kind. While not the first newspaper to feature an opinion line, it was a fresh idea. Instead of folks having to sit down and write a full opinion piece with their names, they could simply call in and say what they believed needed to be said.
Then people began to take short-and-sweet and turn it into "punch-lines only." The problem was that The Kansan encouraged this, by beginning to only print the jokes. Soon the Free for All began to resemble a junior high chat room of quick potty-mouthed labs.
Imagine for just a moment that the Free for All was more than
Chuck Norris jokes. Have you ever wondered why it's called an "opinion line" or why someone would need 20 seconds to say, "I got wasted last night?" The Kansan's institutional memory is as short as one student's trip through this University — four, maybe five short years.
In the four years I've been here,
I have yet to see someone's 20
seconds worth of commentary be
placed in the Free for All. I would
have summarized this in a phone
call, myself, if I believed the fellow
listening to the phone wouldn't have
axed it. So my challenge is two-fold:
Kansan: You don't need four more eyes to butcher the comments, but instead an adult to listen to the phones and write down all the worthy ones. Hell, I'll do it for you, as long as you promise to give the Free for All space to print the opinions.
My fellow students: Call the Free for All, and say whatever it is you're thinking, taking as much of those 20 seconds as needed. Whether it's appropriate or not, hopefully The Kansan's opinion editors (be they one or four in number) will put out the best. So we'll get the smartest comments on campus, be they funny or serious, important or light. It's time to remember the point of this device — to find out what Jayhawks are thinking about their campus and the world.
Nolan T. Jones
Pittsburg senior
FREE FOR ALL
Call 864-0500
Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. Kanan editors reserve the right to omit comments. Slanderous and obscene statements will not be printed. Phone numbers of all incoming calls are recorded.
Damn, there were some really hot, muddy kids in the Chi-O foun-
图
I promise I am not high. Someone please tell me you see the dancing tomato at 23rd and Iowa too.
--get pom-poms?
get pom-poms?
So, Flattery kicked some major ass at the game, but why doesn't he
Why can guys shave their crotches but not their faces?
give a little warning next time.
To the pole spinners in front of Hash: If you don't have anything better to do with your time, you can come over and work on some of my homework
It is Blood Drive Week. Everybody donate
How was I supposed to know you aren't supposed to bring your own beer into the bar?
Hey, text messages that say "hey" suck.
just want to apologize for that mail box I mowed over. I should
is it normal that I scream "mu-mu-mudslide" during orgasm?
I love the final episode of "Sex and the City." I'm bawling my eyes out, because no guy on the KU campus
$2.99? Are you out of your mind?
图
I love Carrie and Big together. They complete me.
To my ex-boyfriend: Thank you for ruining my night tonight. It was
grant
》 LETTER TO THE EDITOR
I don't like molding cheese.
Kansan found lacking
I understand The University Daily Kansan is a teaching publication, but I am saddened at the lack of quality that has plagued the paper so far this semester. Front page headlines have obvious mistakes and articles are poorly written and confusing.
Will Palmer is our hero.
Are not students still required to take two semesters each of reporting and editing before they are allowed to work on The Kansan? Are there not copy chiefs and general editors who read everything before it is published? Has the quality of the journalism school declined so much that I am ashamed to be a graduate of the program?
> LETTER TO THE EDITOR
》 TALK TO US
As I've been observing from my porch and biking around Lawrence for the past few weeks, it seems that drivers are not paying attention to the array of obstacles that may be on the road, like bikers, kids running around and people crossing the road.
Heather Moore Class of 1991
After returning from a year in Amsterdam, where the right of way is given to bikes first, then pedestrians and lastly to cars, I am horrified by American drivers — but those in Lawrence especially.
Pay attention, Lawrence drivers
Jonathan Kapling, editor
@464.844 or jkapling@kansan.edu
Erick R. Schmidt, managing editor
@464.844 or schmidt@kansan.edu
Gabriela Souze, managing editor
@464.844 or gosuzu@kansan.com
Frank Tankard opinion editor
@464.844 or tankard@kansan.edu
The most recent and obvious case of this problem is the tragic and unnecessary death of KU senior Ryan Kanost. I've been talking about this for weeks with my
Remember, cars are huge machines that WILL hurt or kill people if you drive into them. It's not that complicated. When we become so automatic about driving and forget that Lawrence isn't 1-70, we jeopardize people living around here — including a lot of kids — and accidents happen.
friends, but I thought I should ask the rest of the University: Where are you going that's so important and worth jeopardizing someone's life to get there on time? If it is so important, why didn't you leave a few minutes earlier?
Laura Burke
Cranbury, N.J., senior
Dave Ruigh, associate opinion editor 864-4924 or druigh@kansan.com
Kyle Hoedl, business manager 864-4014 or khoedl@kansan.com
Lindsey Shirak, sales manager
864-4462 or lishirak@kansan.com
Maikolm Gibson, general manager, news adviser
864-7667 or mgibson@kansan.com
Jennifer Weaver, sales and marketing adviser
864-7666 or jweaver@kansan.com
SUBMISSIONS
The Kansan welcomes letters to the editor and guest columns submitted by students, faculty and alumni.
The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length,
or reject all submissions.
For any questions, call Frank Tankard or Dave Ruigh at 864-4810 or e-mail opinion@kansan.com.
General questions should be directed to the editor at editor@kansan.com.
**Maximum Length:** 200 word limit
**Include:** Author's name and telephone number;
class, hometown (student); position (faculty member/staff); phone number (will not be published)
**SUBMIT LETTERS TO**
111 Stauffer-First Nail
1435 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence, KS 66045
(785) 864-9810, uplink@ikansam.com
LETTER GUIDELINES
GUEST COLUMN GUIDELINES
**Maximum Length:** 500 word unit
**Include:** Author's name; class, hemetown (student); position (faculty member/staff); phone number (will not be published)
**Also:** The Kansan will not print guest columns that attack a reporter or another columnist.
EDITORIAL BOARD
V
Jonathan Kealing, Erick R. Schmidt, Gabriella Souza, Frank Tankard, Dave Rulgh, Steve Lynn, McKay Stangler and Louis Moris