4A
Monday, August 24, 1992
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Correspondents to enhance campus coverage
STEPHEN MARTINO
The Kansan invites all
students to actively contribute to the paper and help increase our coverage.
The fall represents a time of renewal and change at the University of Kansas. New students replace those who have graduated. New professors and instructors step in for those who have left or retired. Campus organizations take a new shape and direction as new leaders plot their courses. Refreshing and new, the fall makes campus seem even more alive than usual.
However, this autumn change seems to have taken on an electric quality at KU. Gone is Gene Budig, the University's chancellor, to the presidency of Major League Baseball's American League. In his place is Del Shankel, professor of microbiology, to serve as intermant chancellor until a
search committee can recommend a replacement for Budig. The exit of Budig, who had the chancellor's office for 13 years, will almost certainly spark a number of changes within the University. While these may only be cosmetic, Chancellor Shankel will undoubtedly leave an imprint on the institution he has been asked to lead.
Obviously the organization I have been charged to lead this semester, the Kansan, has undergone a great deal of change. We are glad that we have been able to make the move to full color. We are glad that papers will be on campus before classes start each morning. We are also glad that we will be able to offer more coverage
of campus groups, activities and people than ever before.
The first two changes, color and earlier printing and distribution, will be up to the news staff — to incorporate new technology and new deadlines. We hope you will like the things that we have done to make the Kansan as modern, clean looking and convenient as possible.
Our third charge for the semester, increasing our coverage of groups, activities and people, however, may be more dependent on you, our readers, than the news staff.
In an effort to be more responsive the Kansan knows we have to cover the people of this university — want
you do, what you think, what you believe — better. The Kansan has been criticized for how its covers the campus. But at a time when we are asked to do more, we have fewer numbers than we ever have had fun the past. At the same time, this situation provides us the perfect opportunity to open our doors to as many people as possible who would like to contribute to the Kansan.
We call them Kansan Correspondents.
At 4:30 Wednesday in room 100 of Stauffer-Flint Hall, the Kansan will have a meeting of the people interested in contributing to the Kansan, whether that contribution is as a reporter, a photographer or a graphic
artist. While everyone is welcome to become a correspondent, this is an especially good opportunity for freshmen and sophomores who want to be journalism majors or are considering journalism to get a first-hand account of what working on the *Kansan* is like. If you can't make the meeting, feel free to stop by the newsroom at 111 Stauffer-Flint anytime and find out how you can contribute.
With your help and contribution, a color Kansan won't be the only change you will notice in the paper this semester.
Stephen Martinez is an Olathe senior major in journalism and political science.
VIEWPOINT
Search for new chancellor should include minorities
Thirteen years ago Gene Budig became the chancellor of our University. This summer he became the president of the American League.
And while we wish him happiness as he becomes a significant part of the sport he has always loved, we have to turn our
rational in recruiting candidates for the position of chancellor.
In order to find the best person to lead KU into the next century, the commit-
CHANCELLOR SEARCH The search committee should actively seek to recruit high quality women and minority candidates for KU chancellor.
attention to the more essential project of finding a replacement.
To ensure that the committee passes that examination, it should consider the issue of diversity.
The search committee has a great responsibility on its shoulders. Their selection will be scrutinized on all sides, and the selection process will be dissected and examined.
To date, the University of Kansas has never been headed by a woman or a person of color.
It should be the hope of the University community that the members of the search committee are
One of the biggest movements of the '90s has been the re-examination of how we view minorities. Although some attitudes are still in need of overhaul, most rational people have come to realize that ability is not based on gender or race but on talent and intelligence.
tee must seek out those who may not apply because they think their gender or ethnicity may be too great a handicap. Once they
have found those people the committee has to let them know that they were sought out because of their abilities.
It is important that this not be mistaken as a command to hire a minority or a woman, simply because he or she is a minority or a woman. Without considering the unique perspectives a woman or minority may offer, the committee would be decreasing its chances of bringing a great leader to KU.
In addition to the request to consider all possibilities, it would be wise for the committee to keep the following in mind:
A chancellor willing to make himself or herself accessible to students.
An administrator willing to fight for the interests of students and faculty at any political cost.
It is a tall order to ask anyone to fill but so is finding a high quality chancellor.
DONELLA HEARNE FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD.
KANSAN STAFF
STEPHEN MARTINO
Editor
JEN CARR Business manager
CHRISTOPH FUHRMANS Managing editor
TOM EBLEN General manager, news adviser
CATHERINE ELLSWORTH Systems coordinator
JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser
CAMERON DEATH Retail sales manager
News...Sara Bennett
Editorial...Donella Heane
Campus...Mark Martin
Sports...Brian James
Photo...Daron Bennett
Melissa Lacey
Features...Traci Carl
Planning...Susan White
Design...Noah Musser
Assistant to the editor..Robbie Johnson
Editors
Business Staff
Campur mgr ... Todd Winters
Regional mgr ... Laura Guth
National mgr ... Mark Mastro
Coop mgr ... Emily Gibson
Special Sections mgr ... Jon Perrier
Production mgrs ... Holly Boren
... Regan Overy
Marketing director ... Alan Stigle
Creative director ... John Carlton
Classified mgr ... Heather Nielshus
**Letters** should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words. They must include the writer's signature, name, address and telephone number. Writers affiliated with the University of Texas at Austin are not permitted.
Guest columns should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be photographed.
The Kansas reserves the right to reject or edit letters, guest columns and cartoons. They can be nailed or brought to the Kansas newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall.
GENE BUDIG ENTERS HIS FIELD OF DREAMS
Matt Hood/ KANSAN
Finding a liberating education is not easy
When I think of what a liberal arts education should be, I think of my seventh grade social studies class. Our teacher decided he wanted to expose us to a different view of education. He played the entire "Wall" album by Pink Floyd. He even printed the lyrics for us. Some of those lyrics challenged my complacent ideas about education.
That album made me question the nature of the student/teacher relationship, especially the lines "We don't need no education. We don't need no thought control." This is what I think a liberal arts education wouldn't do. It would be, as its name implies, a liberating education. And yet so many classrooms are characterized by an authoritarianism that would make Chairman Mao proud.
When you come to a university, it is reasonable to expect that you will be treated as an adult. How many times have you walked into a classroom to find yourself being treated as if you were back in junior high? Instead of calling your parents when you are not in class, the professor takes points off your grade. Punishment and discipline are still essential to your classroom experience.
This is an unique situation especially when considered from a business perspective. I know that many of us in the University community find this distasteful, but when you pay your tuition, it becomes a business transaction. You or your parents pay the University in exchange for the services of its professors. What makes this arrangement unique is that it is the only one I know of that penalizes you if you do not use the service. For example, do you see Perry Farrell checking attendance at Lollapaloza? Do you have Roy Williams telling you that because you missed the last game, you have to forfeit one of your remaining tickets? Isn't the fact that you are missing class punishment enough? Why are professors compelled to punish you further? The
NICOLAS SHUMP
As I enter what I hope will be the last year of my undergraduate experience, I continually think back to that seventh grade social studies class. I look back at all of the classes that I have had and try to evaluate my education in terms of what I learned that semester in junior high. For those of you starting your education here, I humbly offer this as a way of evaluating your education. Of all the lessons that I learned in seventh grade, a few lines of Lao Tzu come to mind: "Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death. Whoever is soft and yielding is a disciple of life. The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail."
I know that facsim is a nasty word, but it's also the appropriate one because this issue centers on control. These draconian attendance policies are used by professors to get you into class. Considering that most of their published work is read by fewer people than fit into your average phone booth, the classroom is often their only chance for human interaction.
Nicolaas Shump is a laureance senior majoring in comparative literature.
best conclusion: latent facism and chronic insecurity.
DONELLA HEARNE Opinion page welcomes your views, voices
EDITORIAL EDITOR
The time has come; we're back to school, and I'm back to life in Staufer-Flint. But this semester I will need to ask a favor of all of you.
My job as editor of the Opinion page relies largely on your willingness to help me. Now it is your turn to ask: How could I (fill in your major, year and any personal descriptions here) possibly help make the Opinion page better?
The answer is: You can help by letting me know what is on your mind. We still have room on our Editorial Board and are seeking to add some diversity to the group. This is your chance to speak your mind and be heard.
That sounds easy enough, doesn't it? Well if not, there's always the second option.
You could submit to me a column about whatever is nagging you. We often print guest columns as a way to expand our coverage of the issues affecting this campus.
Option three is even easier than that.
The most important thing to remembrer is you don't have to be a literarygenius to voice your opinions. Thebest commentary comes from regularindividuals who feel they have somethingto say.
You can give me a call or write me a letter
And now that I've made my appeal to you and have put myself at your mercy, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you all to the University of Kansas, Fall 1994.
In case you missed it this summer, there was more than base stealing happening on the baseball scene. At the beginning of the summer, America's national past time stole our chancellor, Gene Budig, when he accepted the position as American League president. The game also stole the income of hot dog vendors and ticket sellers when the millionaires decided they couldn't compromise, and the season ground to a halt.
Also in the news: thousands of man hours have been spent to investigate Whitewater, while Rwandan refugees waste in camps that can't even provide toilets.
And as we recover from seeing O.J.'s face on everything and the shock we felt upon hearing that 100,000 people got into Woodstock '94 without tickets, we can take comfort in the knowledge that classes will resume with little chaos, textbooks will cost as much ever and the parking lot where we want to park will always be full.
Donelia Hamea is a Wichita senior majoring in Journalism.
HUBIE
By Greg Hardin