OPINION
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PUBLISHED DAILY SINCE 1912
CRIAG LANG, Editor
SUSANA LOOP, Managing editor
KIMBERLY CAFTREET, Editorial editor
TOM EBLEN, General manager, news adviser
MARK OZMEK, Business manager
DENNIS HAUPT, Retail sales manager
JUSTIN KNUPTE, Technology coordinator
JAY STEINER, Sales and marketing adviser
Wednesday, April 23, 1997
Jeff MacNelly / CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Editorials
Campaign violations warrant removal of Student Senate elects
Because Scott Sullivan and Mike Walden have been found guilty of serious campaign violations by the elections commission, Sullivan and Walden should be unseated from their newly elected positions as student body president and vice president.
Sullivan and Walden face more than $1,000 in fines and apology advertisement fees for seven campaign violations, including overspending on their campaign and not reporting the advising services of former KU student Travis Harrod on financial statements
Chad Perlov, Senate elections commissioner, said that he knew that Harrod was working for the Unite campaign because Harrod had passed fliers out to other commission members.
"I think they've been properly penalized," Perlov said. "We wanted a very stern message, and we wanted this to
Sullivan, Walden and Kelly violated the rules and should be unseated.
be a message that people could learn from."
Jason Fizell, who ran for president with the Delta Force coalition, said he didn't think Sullivan and Walden should be unseated, but he said that if voters had known about the campaign violations before the election, their votes would have been different.
However, Perlov said that because of time constraints, the campaign violations could not be made public before the election.
This is not the first time Student Senate elections have been an arena of campaign violations. And the elections
commission should be partially commended for taking more action on campaign violations than in the past. But the financial penalties are not strict enough. The commission had an opportunity to prove that it is serious by unseating Sullivan and Walden, and that may be what student politicians need.
Unfortunately, the campaign violations didn't stop with Sullivan and Walden. Becca Kelly, who won a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences seat for Unite, also should be unseated.
Kelly admitted to the elections commission that she knowingly voted on a ballot for which she was not eligible. The elections commission found that she committed voter fraud and ordered her to pay for a $160 Kansan advertisement in which she must apologize to the student body.
This simply is not strict enough.
IAN RITTER FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Cutting up biology labs not worth it
The dissection program in the division of biological sciences needs some fine tuning, but not the overhaul that some groups are suggesting.
A group called the Proponents of Animal Liberation has run a campaign on the KU campus to create alternatives for students with ethical or religious objections to dissection.
The group's proposed policy would require the creation of separate sections of biology labs that would use computers, models and other instructional tools to replace dissections.
The cost of creating these labs, both in man-hours and dollars, is not warranted by the small demand that has been demonstrated for them.
Dean Stetler, director of undergraduate biology and genetics programs, said that only one or two students usually complained about the dissection
The demand is too small to create costly alternative dissection labs.
Rather than creating a separate curriculum for these students, the biology department works to accommodate the needs of each student individually. Stetler said.
requirements each year.
Students have been allowed to watch others perform dissections, to examine specimens that already have been dissected or to complete alternative assignments that do not involve dissection at all.
The small number of students who object to dissection simply does not justify the creation of another curriculum or the expenses of instruction and materials for another course.
This individual tailoring of alternatives is a more cost-effective way of providing for students who object to dissection than the creation of a separate lab.
It is the department's responsibility to provide alternatives to dissection, but the most effective means of doing so is not the creation of an alternate lab section. As long as the department can provide effectively for students on an individual basis, it should continue to do so.
"We try to accommodate each student based on what it is that they believe," Stetler said.
It is important, however, to ensure that the department is effective in creating individual alternatives for students who do object to dissection.
Also, Stetler emphasized that the primary function of the biology department was to train biologists.
KELLI RAYBERN FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
LA TINA SULLIVAN . . . Associate Editorial
KRISTIE BLUSI . . . News
NOVELDA SOMMERS . . . News
LESLEY TAYLOR . . . News
AMANDA TRAUGHBER . . News
TARA TRENARY . . . News
DAVID TESKA . . . Online
SPENCER DUNCAN . . Sports
GNA THORNBURG . . Associate Sports
BRADLEY BROOKS . . Campus
LINDSEY HENRY . . Campus
DAVE BRETTENSTEIN . Features
PAM DISHMAN . Photo
TYLER WIRKEN . Photo
BRYAN VOLK . Design
ANDY ROHRBACK . Graphics
ANDREA ALBRIGHT . Wire
LZ MUSSER . Special sections
AERICA VEAZEY . News clerk
NEWS EDITORS
ADVERTISING MANAGERS
ADVERTISING MANAGERS
HEATHER VALLEY ...Assistant retail
JULIE PEDLAR ...Campus
DANA CENTENO ...Regional
ANNETTE HOOVER ...National
BRIAN PAGEL ...Marketing
SARAH SCHERWINSKI ...Internet
DARCHE MCLAIN ...Production
DENA PISCIOTTE ...Production
ALLISON PERCE ...Special sections
SARA ROSE ...Creative
DANA LAUVETZ ..Public relations
BRIAN LEFEVERE ..Classified
RACHEL RUBIN ..Assistant classified
BRIDGET COLLYER ..Zone
JULIE DEWITT ..Zone
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LIZ HESS ..Zone
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Knowing the etiquette makes tattoo trip fun
Column
A college career is incomplete without a trip to a tattoo parlor. For those who have yet to experience this rite of passage, a primer for tattoo etiquette will not only rest anxiety, but it also will make the adventure fun for everyone participating.
Whether you are going to have the deed done or are simply along to watch, selecting a parlor with the right ambiance is essential. It would be unthinkable to get that tattoo or exotic piercing at some suburban establishment. Their chi chi sofas and leather-bound view books are a disgrace to the profession.
Above all else, be sure to bring several friends. Fun can be had by everyone, for watching your friend being tattooed or pierced is akin to a form of sadomasochism. Not only should they come for the sheer fun of voyeurism, but they also can serve as witnesses to the act. When recounting the day's events to others not present, exactly how loud and for how long the person wailed can be corroborated by these people.
Plywood paneling and neon storefronts are more in keeping with the grand tradition
Once inside, a general rule of thumb would be to not gawk at the other patrons. Eye contact with a customer or tattoo artist is a sign of ridicule and could result in the misspelling of your tattoo or a piercing of the wrong appendage. You are better off looking at one of the tattoo trade magazines while patiently sitting on a folding chair.
of tattoo parlors. You will never fail by entering a hole in the wall in any urban ghetto.
Selecting the tattoo or piercing that is suitable to your needs is one of the most important decisions you'll make. If a dolphin or some Greek letters across your ankle looks a little trite, browse through one of the view books they keep behind the counter for something more exotic. Not much of the human anatomy escapes the needle of a tattoo artist. And you can pierce anything. Anywhere.
When your time to face the needle finally arrives, choose an artist with a sense of humor. This will relieve the apprehension you may have about semi-permanently marking your body. The most important step of this ritual is the "needle presentation," the opening of the package in front of the customer to ensure that the needle is indeed sanitized. To do so otherwise would be in poor taste, something reserved for a seedy establishment.
Once you have been bandaged and you unsteady steer your toward the door, don't forget to tip your artist. This person has been intimate with you for the last half-hour — just how intimate depends on what you have done — and he or she deserves some extra cash. Like tipping extra to a waiter who goes out of the way to refill your drink, so too should you tip someone who sticks a needle into your cartilage.
Although semi-permanent, think long and hard before you decide to tattoo yourself. That name of a special girlfriend across one's bicep may have seemed cute at the time, but once the relationship has soured, removing it by laser for about $1,000 a square inch now may not seem like such a bargain.
Mike Cole is a Mission Hills Junior in Journalism.
Guest column
University should rethink role of Black athletes
Slavery: a condition of hard work and subjection.
Slave: 1. a person who is owned by and forced to work for someone else. 2. a person completely controlled by a specified influence, emotion, etc.
What is your mental picture of this definition? Do you envision a Black man beaten and shackled? What about a Black man in a gleaming sports jersey with a basketball or football in his hands?
Do you notice how many African Americans dominate
the sports of basketball, football, baseball and boxing? In comparison to the number of professional and collegiate athletes, how many Black general managers, owners or coaches are there?
Black athletes are exploited for their talents. And because most sports are dominated by Black men, many people think this is the only contribution Blacks have to offer and so talented Black athletes are treated as such.
Of course, no one has to play sports. However, coaches and peers entice many young, Black athletes to pursue their talents, selling the athletes as commodities, with their talents as the ticket out of a poor community or troubled home life.
Having attended the University of Kansas for three years and being one of about 750 Blacks on this campus, I always feel the pressure of being a race representative. This is normal for us. We have become accustomed to being the lone person of color in our classes.
The only Blacks that were welcomed were the ones on the basketball court. I became disgusted looking at the starting lineup. The Nebraska squad was entirely Black, and the University contributed only a few caucasians.
But why isn't there this same isolation on the football field or basketball court? Most of us have fallen victim to the 20th century slavery system that is commonly practiced by most college sports programs, the University of Kansas included.
Earlier this semester I attended the Kansas vs. Nebraska basketball game with a friend. Call it an overreaction if you must, but the reactions we got from several ushers and people sitting around us made it clear that anyone who was not a 65-year-old, white, male season-ticket holder did not belong in Allen Field House that day.
Black athletes have been brainwashed into
thinking that the education they are receiving here is retribution for the millions of dollars they bring to the University for winning Bowl Games and for winning the Big 12 conference. Where else in the world do you see million dollar money-makers living in ramshackle towers? But is all of their effort really worth the "pay"? Are their academic schedules as well-planned as their sports schedules? Is there not a problem when a student spends more time in practice than in the classroom?
This is not the only way Black men can get a college education. Black athletes tend to get caught up in an exploitative cycle from the time they first begin to exhibit athletic talents. They are shipped from neighborhoods to private schools to exploit their labors to make money for the institution. Sound familiar? By this time they are already caught in the trap, and they begin placing athletics before academics. They begin believing that this is their only way of going to college.
It's funny how so many people - sportcasters, coaches and fans - always emphasize the fact that someone like Jacque Vaughn is an academic scholar.
What is so surprising about that? Is a Black man, an athlete, not expected to be? Why can't he just be an intelligent Black man? African Americans on a bigger spectrum are viewed more as physical people than scholarly or academic ones. When Blacks, especially Black athletes, reach a certain economic, scholarly, or celebrity status, causasians tend to view them as not Black. They are still Black by mere definition, but they are now different.
Black people on this campus only matter if we are giving something back, like money and talent. Those that have neither to contribute are separated from these "elite" Blacks, who then become isolated and often times engulfed by this slavery system. Their schedules allow them little time for interactions with other nonatletic Blacks.
The University of Kansas should take a hard look at itself. The majority of Blacks who attend here are student athletes. Does the administration feel that this is the only contribution that we as Black people can give?
Also, hopefully in time, Black athletes, male and female, will realize and understand the true dynamics of their roles here and use it to their advantage. I guess one can say that African Americans are accepted at this University only as long as we continue to believe that the system is working for us.
Tara Otden is a Denver junior in political science
Jeff MacNelly / CHICAGO TRIBUN