OPINION
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PUBLISHED DAILY SINCE 1912
CRAIG LANG, Editor
SUSANNA LOOP, Managing editor
KIMBELBY CRARTREE, Editorial editor
TOM EBLEN, General manager, news adviser
MARK OZMEK, Business manager
DENES HAUPL, Retail sales manager
JUSTIN KNUP, Technology coordinator
JAY STEINER, Sales and marketing adviser
4A
Monday, April 28,1997
Tim McCabe / KANSAN
Editorials
Publishing evaluations would be both expensive and ineffective
Gaining information about your professors should be as easy as picking up a booklet, similar to the timetable. At least that is what Scott Sullivan, student body president, and many of students on the Unite coalition believe. However, the ramifications and cost of releasing faculty evaluations far outweigh any of the meager benefits that could be gained.
The evaluations that would be published would be the same as the ones the University of Kansas uses now. That means the evaluations would not be universal. Not only do faculty evaluations differ from school to school, but they also differ from department to department. As a result, it would be difficult for students to effectively judge criteria that is different for each department.
Furthermore, most of the questions that these evaluations ask are generic and would not provide a lot of useful information for students. For example, one question rates how fast teachers return tests.
It would cost about $10,000 in student fees to print evaluation booklets.
This question, however, does not account for teachers who may take a long time to get a test back but are good at communicating the material to the class. Thus, based on how long the instructor takes to return tests, potential students may skip over taking a class from a highly skilled and effective teacher.
Another point to consider is that these evaluation guides could only provide information about professors. That means that TAs and GTAs would not be rated, and since they are a substantial part of the teaching staff, these evaluations would be useless for many students.
especially freshmen, have to take classes during bad time slots, with the less popular professors, or with TAs whom they do not even know. Furthermore, once students reach a certain point in their major, they have to take classes in which they do not have the option of choosing instructors because certain classes are only taught by one professor.
Also, we need to be realistic. While these evaluations might be great if students could enroll in any class they wanted, this is not the case. Students,
Sullivan also proposed publishing a professor performance guide that could be picked up with the semester timetable. Sullivan estimated it would cost $10,000 to print these guides, which he said Student Senate could easily pick up, since it has extra money in the unallocated accounts.
Of course, that money is from student fees, and some students actually mind having their money wasted.
If you weigh the benefits of published against unpublished evaluations, leaving them unpublished seems to be the intelligent decision. Not only are faculty evaluations useless, but they are too costly.
NICOLE SKALLA FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Placement centers are here to help
Although the original intent of acquiring a University education is to gain insight on the world and become a more enlightened individual, most students also attend college hoping that their hard-earned degree will eventually help them land a job. For students with post-college interests in mind, the University has a hidden secret that unfortunately only a small number of students utilize — the University Placement Center.
Located in the Burge Union, which unfamiliar students can find just west of Allen Field House, the center was established to assist students of any major in developing the skills required to search for professional employment, career-related internships and summer work.
The services this office offers are incredible and though it may sound obscure and unfamiliar to many students, the University Placement Center
Resources are available for job searches, so take advantage of them now.
is very organized. The center brings employers in to interview graduating students, and students can view the list of employers, which is updated weekly to get a schedule. Students registered with the center are assisted in making a computerized resume, which the center then refers to employers. The resume is also made available via the Internet.
In addition to the University's center, several of the professional schools have job placement centers to assist their students. The dean's office of these schools have information about these offices and services they offer.
To prepare students for job interviews, the center even holds workshops designed to help with interviewing strategies. Also, the center has video equipment to tape mock interviews so that students may see how they appear to potential employers when they are
under the interviewing microscope.
The center also has information on internships for all major fields, and the career placement library is also available with career possibilities. The center even is the home of the Kansas Work-Study program which provides students with part-time, career-related jobs.
For students interested in finding even more information, most of the center's services are available on its web site at www.ukans.edu/~unc
The University Placement Center and job centers in professional schools are available to help students, so don't be afraid to take advantage of them.
KANSAN STAFF
LATINA SULJIAN ... Associate Editorial
KRISTIE BLASI ... News
NOVELDA SOMMERS ... News
LESLEY TAYLOR ... News
AMANDA TRAUGHBER ... News
TARA TRENARY ... News
DAVID TESKA ... Online
SPENCER DUNCAN ... Sports
GINA THORNBURG ... Associate Sports
BRADLEY BROOKS ... Campus
LINDSHEY HENRY ... Campus
DAVE BRETTENSTEIN ... Features
PAM DISIMAN ... Photo
TYLER WIRKEN ... Photo
BRYAN VOLK ... Design
ANDY ROHRBACK ... Graphics
ANDREA ALBRIGHT ... Wire
LZ MUSSER .. Special sections
AERICA VEAZEY ... News clerk
NEWS EDITORS
CODY SIMMS FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
ADVERTISING MANAGERS
ADVERTISING MANAGERS
HEATHER VALLER . . . Assistant retail
JULIE PEDLAR . . . Campus
DANA CENTENO . . . Regional
ANNETTE HOVER . . . National
BRIAN PAGEL . . . Marketing
SARAH SCHERWINSKI . . . Internet
DARICI McLAIN . . Production
DENA PISCOTTE . . Production
ALLISON PIERCE . Special sections
SARA ROSE . . . Creative
DANA LAUVETZ . Public relations
BRIAN LEFEVRE . Classified
RACHEL RUBIN . Assistant classified
BRIDGET COLLYER . Zone
JULIE DEWITT . Zone
CHRIS HAGHIRIAN . Zone
LZ HESS . Zone
ANTHONY MIGLIAZZO . Zone
MARIA CRIST . Senior account executive
Letters: Should be double-spaced typed and fewer than 200 words. Letters must include the author's signature, name, address and telephone number plus class and hometown if a University student. Faculty or staff must identify their positions.
How to submit letters and guest columns
Guest columna: For this semester are no longer being accepted because of time constraints.
All letters should be submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Kimberly Crabtree (opinion@kansason.com) or LaTina Sullivan (isulillian@kansason.com) at 864-481-0.
Don't lament media, help make it better
Columns
You're sitting around kicking it with your friends, and you turn on the television or pick up the newspaper and notice that you're not represented.
Imagine this.
There aren't any people of color on America's top 10 television shows, and the only time representatives from your ethnic background are on the evening news is when they're in handcuffs.
So, do you start getting angry and begin to ask your friends why you aren't represented?
If you have been on the school newspaper (not high school) or have contributed in any way to make sure that your group is adequately represented in the media, then you can stop reading.
Wait. Before you start throwing around conspiracy theories, ask yourself this question: What am I doing instead of running my mouth?
However, I do work at the Kansan, and let me tell you there are not many people of color working here — let's see ... there's one... two... three... four five (wait that's me again) . OK there is a total of four people of color out of about 100 people who work on the Kansan news staff.
Why is that?
Are we what W.E.B. DuBois called the talented 10th? Or are we just so damn smart, witty or journalistically savvy that we can fairly represent all the many diverse groups on the University of Kansas campus?
I don't think so.
In reality, most people just like to sit around and complain that the media is this big bad entity that is out to get people of color.
Now, don't get me wrong. I am usually the first to admit that the media, including The University Daily Kansan, has made and will continue to make mistakes when it comes to adequate coverage on people of color. However, the only way that people of color can make change happen is to become more proactive and not reactive.
If you're upset because the movies Love Jones, (God
forbid) *Booty Call* or the ever-so-sweet sounds of Baduism didn't get reviewed, then join the Kansan staff and become an entertainment reporter.
If you want more coverage of the Asian Student Union, Black Student Union, international issues or Native American issues, then join the editorial board, or become a reporter or a columnist.
If you want the Kansan to look and feel more like you, you have to become involved and make sure that you're represented.
If you feel that you just want to be heard, then join the Kansan. This is perhaps the only time in your life that will have the majority of the KU student body and faculty willing to hear what you have to say.
And working on the Kansan is a small step toward creating a better image of people of color in the media. If you don't do it, then who will?
I'm sure that all the of the people of color who work here could try to represent all of our racial affiliations, but I know that Black people would get tired of me reviewing everything that ever came out by Whitney Houston.
Basically, what I'm trying to say is that it is almost impossible for four people to try to create a more positive image of people of color. We can't undo generations and generations of bad media portraits.
However, we do what we can, and we make sure that we are represented and represented well.
So, the next time you feel that the Kansan is the most racist and culturally insensitive paper in the world, open it up and see if your byline is there.
"Okay, open it up and listen to your bye!" is uttered.
And if it isn't, guess what?
You too have helped to create what you nave called a racist, culturally insensitive paper.
But it's not too late.
It only takes one person's voice to help create change; however, 50 voices will make sure you get heard.
Drop by the Kansan or give me a call and tell me what you're interested in doing. Applications for fall and summer positions are available.
LaTina Sullivan is a Memphis, Tenn., senior in journalism.
Defending beliefs is fine if acting within the law
I was working in a government office in Washington when the bomb that destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City exploded.
immediate measures were taken to increase
security in government buildings across the nation as disturbing shots of the destruction were broadcast on television. We all gathered around the small set in the back office to learn more about the devastating act of violence and wondered why someone would do something this horrendous.
The trial has begun for Timothy McVeigh. We still have no concrete answers, just myriad rumors and suspicions and
some evidence pointing at his involvement.
Regardless of the outcome of the trial, this event, coupled with the catastrophe at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, in 1993 has brought to light a disturbing movement in our country. Extremism, militia activity and violent acts in defense of liberty are not new, but they are simply becoming more accepted and more mainstream. Barry Goldwater once said, "Extremism in defense of liberty is not a crime."
Our country was founded by people who were fighting a system of government they thought was oppressive. They were patriots working outside the accepted laws of the day to establish a country based on liberty and freedom. The United States still, theoretically, thrives on this ideal. If you think a law is wrong, it is your duty as a citizen to fight that law. Either call your representatives, protest, start a letter-writing campaign or run for
office. Just act within the confines of the law
Prosecuters for the bombing case say McVeigh is suspected of bombing the Murrah building in 1995 in retribution for the fire in Waco. If this is true, then the grandstanding about his concern for the children in the compound is absurd hypocritical. There were 168 casualties in the bombing, along with more than 500 injured. The families and friends of these people will forever suffer for their loss, which even a guilty verdict for McVeigh will not assuage.
McVeigh recently wrote a letter to an editor of the Oklahoma Gazette claiming that the FBI was responsible for the fire at the Waco compound on April 19, 1993, that killed David Koresh and 80 followers of his cult. In his letter, he explained that the public was prevented from seeing a video of the children and other cult members, nor did they see the charred remains of children's bodies.
Another victim of this senseless tragedy is the loss of security for all government employees. When employees entered a building, flashed their badge and passed through the security check, they used to feel safe.
The bombing and the increased popularity of and publicity for militias and other groups claiming to be standing up for their freedom and liberty against an oppressive government has proven that nobody is safe anymore.
Koresh and McVeigh are not the patriots of the 1990s, and they should not be revered for acting in defense of civil liberties and freedom. Standing up for your beliefs and fighting for your rights is respectable and honorable as long as it is done within the limits of the laws and without infringing upon the rights of others.
Sabrina Steele is an Overland Park senior in political science.
Letters To find truth, maybe it's better to just listen
I am responding to the guest column by John Hart in which he claimed that relativism was not an adequate point of view. However, if he is really interested in discovering the truth, he is better served by listening than talking. Lao Tzu said it in the Hua Hu Ching much better than I will ever be able to:
Why scurry about looking for the truth?/ It vibrates in every thing and not everything, right off the tip of your nose/ Can you be still and see it in the mountain? the nine tree? yourself/
Don't imagine that you'll discover it by accumulating more knowledge! Knowledge creates doubt, and doubts make you忍耐 for more knowledge./You can't get full eating this way./The wise person dines on something more subtle: He eats the understanding that the named was born from the unnamed, that all being floux from non-being, that the describable man emanates from an indescribable source/.He finds this subtle truth inside his own self;
Mel Smith
Lawrence resident
and becomes completely content./
World Expo sought to see beyond conflict
If you can do this, you will gain everything, and the world will become healthy again./ If you can't, you will be lost in the shadows forever./
and becomes completely content./ So who can be still and watch the chess game of the world? The foolish are always making impulsive moves, but the wise know that victory and defeat are decided by something more subtle. They see that something perfect exists before any move is made./
This subtle perfection deteriorates when artificial actions are taken, so be content not to disturb the peace. Remain quiet./Discover the harmony in your own being./Embrace it/.
The World Expo, sponsored by International Students Association, was on Friday, April 18. The purpose is to allow international
students to freely express and promote their culture through the display of cultural items. Participants are ensured equality by the ISA one culture shall not be allowed a right that any other culture is denied. This event is not meant to limit minds, but to open minds.
This year, against opposition from the Hellenic Club, ISA allowed a culture that is not recognized by the U.N., North Cyprus, to display its flag at the World Expo. This act was countered by an ad condemning the ISA for allowing one of its members to represent material of political content.
However, this is a cultural demonstration displaying that this is indeed a culture that has the freedom to express a place where a group of people share the same aspects of life. It is the goal of the World Expo to be free of conflict that is ever-present in the world, and for one day everyone can see these cultures for what they really are, beyond the conflict.
Mandy Gilson Andover senior