THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PAGE 5A
opinion
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Female tears kill male sex drive. It's science.
TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 2011
If you're mean to me this week, while we're not having sex, I'll dump you in a hurry and move on.
It's kind of interesting that if you watch Ferris Bueller's Day Off and really pay attention to Charlie Sheen's character, you'll notice that the movie foreshadowed what Charlie Sheen would become. Weird...
Just applied to Sch litterbahn. It's not Disney World, but it's a start.
It's just strange how Mom's Day and cougar hunting season always overlap.
My Sim has a better relationship with his car than he does with his girlfriend.
Sometimes I too dry swallow my vitamin just so I can feel like House.
I've tamed the young kitten, now it's time to tame the lioness.
It figures the one lecture I missed because I was too hung over after St. Patty's Day was about what causes a hangover.
I have a Facebook page for my cat, and I spend way too much time on it.
Democracy has nothing to do with hitting on skanky chicks, you ignoramus. It has everything to do with freedom of choice, and popular voting. People's rights.
I have one true love in life...it starts with Jimmer and ends with Fredette.
Someone is giving me a puppy to take their final for them. How can I say no?
I have a stack of newspapers 6 inches high of all the times I have been published in the FFA, both indirectly and directly. I'm thinking about making a scrapbook one day.
I've decided the guy I'm going to marry is probably going to be the first guy that doesn't make a joke about Seaman when I tell them where I went to high school.
Five weeks of school left. Not entirely sure how I will be getting everything done without clones, time travel, and/or massive quantities of amphetamines.
I say cuss words when I sneeze to see how many people notice.
I'm gonna stop saying, "hold your horses" and start saying "whoa there, don't drop your panties just yet"
What I meant to say was “you're beautiful” but what came out was “you're right-handed, aren't you?” I'll try again someday.
Girl#1: Remember that boy I was obsessed with? Girl#2: You're gonna have to be more specific.
So it's great and all that my stoned grapes comment made it in today, but I still have no idea whether to eat the seeds or not...
The Kansan editorial board has decided to endorse Renew KU in its bid to lead the student body for the 2011- 2012 academic year.
Kansan editorial board endorses Renew KU
EDITORIAL
Both KUnited and Renew KU have proposed solid platforms with a sincere interest in improving student life. However, the board has determined that Renew KU's platforms, overall vision and leadership will better connect students, both undergraduate and graduate, with their legislative body.
transparency, student outreach and communication.
With each coalition proposing nearly 20 platforms, the feasibility of these initiatives is important. The board agrees that Renew KU has best measured the feasibility of its platforms and analyzed necessary methods to achieve its goals. Renew KU has also provided specific plans to repair some of the most damaged areas of Student Senate, such as
One of the most important roles of Student Senate is allocating funds to student groups. Senate oversees the allocation of about $24 million in funds every year. This responsibility requires financial knowledge and commitment. Renew KU presidential candidate Casey Briner, a junior from Flower Mound, Texas, has extensive experience with fund allocation as the secretary of the finance committee. Likewise, Josh Dean, a sophomore from Overland Park and Renew KU vicepresidential candidate, serves on the finance committee as the vice-chair. These positions have enabled Briner and Dean to learn the mechanisms of fund allocation and what needs to be done to ensure student groups receive
necessary funding.
Renew KU's platforms speak to the diversity of the student body with a wide range of interests and needs. Furthermore, Renew KU has shown a commitment to improving student outreach and transparency. For these reasons the Kansan editorial board supports the student body presidency of Casey Briner and vice presidency of Josh Dean.
seek to increase transparency by providing an interactive pie chart online to show students where their money is going. If this information is easy to access and decipher, students are more likely to engage with their student representatives about the issues that affect them.
Furthermore, Briner and Dean are proposing to simplify the funding process for student groups in the future. Renew KU's funding code simplification platform will allow student groups to evaluate funding eligibility online. Simplifying code language will allow more student groups to receive the funding they deserve.
Renew KU has pointed out the failure of Student Senate to keep its website current with up-to-date meeting minutes and legislation archives. Briner and Dean have expressed a commitment to the enforcement of policies that will ensure these documents are available online for students, as well as a commitment to keeping the website professional.
Furthermore, Briner and Dean also
EDITORIAL
Student body deserves opportunity to ask Kobach questions directly
Tonight, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach will give a speech at the Lied Center addressing the various issues surrounding the topic of illegal immigration reform. While Kobach's policies have received support from some parts of the country, his actions have angered many who do not share his strict stance on immigration policy. There are several students at the University of Kansas who have expressed their disdain for Kobach and his policies, and those students have made clear their intention of protesting Kobach's lecture.
Yet while many of his strict anti-immigration policies have stirred debate and controversy across the country, it will be important for those who attend the lecture to be courteous and respectful to Mr. Kobach throughout his speech. University students should be mindful of Kobach's right to express his views, regardless of however they may feel about his policies. This lecture is an opportunity for students to demonstrate the class and character of the University of Kansas, and they can do so by treating a guest speaker with respect even if they disagree with his political stance.
However, despite the fact that students are perfectly capable of showing respect and courtesy to guest speakers, it appears that Kobach himself seems fearful of direct discussion. Questions are allowed from the audience, but only if they are submitted before the lecture; Kobach has made it clear that he will not be accepting questions directly from audience
members. This sends the message that Kobach is not interested in creating a dialogue with his audience, and that he would rather just transplant his ideas onto his audience with little to no argument. Regardless of whether that is indeed his intent, Kobach has made it clear that he does not wish for his arguments to be openly challenged.
While students and other audience members have an obligation to show respect to Kobach, Kobach has just as much of an obligation to show respect to his audience. By not allowing audience members to engage in direct dialogue with him, Kobach is showing disrespect to university students as well as the Lawrence community as a whole. If Kobach expects his audience to listen to his views with respect, he should demonstrate the same type of respect to them as well. Otherwise, he sends the message that he is afraid of political discourse and would rather broadcast his views without opposition as a means of protecting himself from public outcry.
Everyone has a right to free speech, and those who disagree with Kobach have the right to express their disapproval of his presence in Lawrence. However, university students should still make efforts to show respect to Kobach and listen to his words, even if he is unwilling to do the same for his audience.
Spencer Davidson for the Kansan editorial board.
Today's topweet
lookisdrew @kansanopinion I would argue that anyone who uses #winning in a tweet (or just in general communication) is doing the exact opposite.
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CAMPUS CULTURE
Jason Wren Initiative reminds students to drink responsibly
After an evening filled with margaritas, beer, boxed wine and whiskey on March 8, 2009, University of Kansas freshman Jason Wren was found dead surrounded by shocked and ashamed Sigma Alpha Epsilon members.
For many students, this was the first time the reality of alcohol's harmful effects had hit so close to home, momentarily crushing that ignorant, youthful attitude of invincibility.
Jason's story is an all-too-familiar tragic tale: loving son and brother, lacrosse player for the KU club team, great friend. His girlfriend since the seventh grade described Jason in one word: passionate
In the wake of such tragedies, it's a grossly human defense to quickly point the finger outward.
PLACING THE BLAME
Finger pointing was seen immediately with Jason's death. Judging from the cold-hard facts of his story, it was pretty easy for the ignorant to easily write him off as an alcoholic considering that he had recently been kicked out of his dorm for multiple alcohol citations, he was a member of a fraternity
Jason Wren Initiative
Where: Budig Hall,
Room 120
When: 6 - 8 p.m.
and his death was caused from excessive drinking.
But less than two months later, Dauton Hawkins' death exposed a bigger issue, reminding many of us that Wren's death wasn't so uncommon. Hawkins, also a University of Kansas freshman, was not living in a fraternity. Nor did he have any drinking citations from his dorm. He was a Mount Oread scholar who fell to his death after a night of drinking.
Rarely were the words "it could have been me" heard. Many of us thought it; few of us said it out loud. The words were too disturbing and disheartening to spit out.
If Jason's death didn't shake you Dalton's certainly should have.
As a freshman at the time, I wasn't so quick to label a stranger as an alcoholic. Many of us have had nights when we have drunk a similar amount of alcohol and mornings when we've woken up with nothing but a bad headache and blurred memories.
These deaths unfortunately exposed the true dangers of college drinking today for University of Kansas students.
Instead, we point the finger. At Jason.
At Greek Life. At Sigma Alpha Epsilon. At
the restaurant that served him margaritas.
At everyone but ourselves.
THE PROBLEM
It's easy for students to ignore or dismiss national statistics on college drinking.
For starters, approximately 1,700 college students die each year from drinking. That
BY MANDY MATNEY
mmatney@kansan.com
It's easy to blame the culture of college students. We grew up watching drunken escapades of 20-year-olds on the Real
breaks down to five students every day, which means millions of sisters, mothers, friends, teammates and family members lose someone they love to alcohol every year. It means that Jason and Dalton's deaths weren't so rare. It means we need to stop and think exactly about this issue and start pointing the finger elsewhere.
World while our parents were working. We learned how to drink to get drunk usually with bottles of McCormik's vodka in a dimly-lit basement in high school. When college
When college comes and we no longer have to drink
with worries of parental breath checks,
we drink more. And we do this with the
catastrophically self-destructive attitude of
invincibility, the catalyst of disaster.
MAKING CHANGE
As a student, I know that lectures preaching "don't drink" won't do the trick and neither will cracking down on underage drinking laws. You can't fix a cultural issue like this one simply. It must be done strategically and realistic for it to be effective.
It starts with holding ourselves accountable. It starts with swallowing invincibility and gaining knowledge. Attending this year's second annual Jason Wren Initiative tonight is a step in the right direction.
The Jason Wren Initiative focuses on educating students about drinking more responsibly. The creators of this event know that students are going to drink despite it being illegal and destructive to their health. Instead of telling them to stop drinking, it educates students on how to help friends in trouble.
The event last year made me realize that excessive drinking puts our lives in danger and is not worth it. I look forward to what I'll learn this year.
It is our obligation as KU students to learn from Dalton and Jason and keep their memory alive. It's the least we can do.
Matney is a junior in journalism from Shawnee. She is associate opinion editor.
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THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Members of the Kansan Editorial Board are Nick Gerik, Michael Holtz, Stella Stroda, D.M. Scott and Mandy Malmey.
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