OPINION
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PUBLISHED DAILY SINCE 1912
CRAG LANG, Editor
SUSANA LOOP, Managing editor
KIMBERLY CRAFTREE, Editorial editor
TOM EBLEN, General manager, news editor
MARK OZMIME, Business manager
DENNS HAUPT, Retail sales manager
JUSTIN KNUPI, Technology coordinator
JAY STEINER, Sales and marketing adviser
Tuesday, April 22, 1997
Jeff MacNelly / CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Editorials
Simple environmental actions make every day an Earth Day
In the past few decades, many people have realized that we have done irreparable damage to planet Earth. We are inundated with constant warnings of skin cancer because of the depletion of the ozone and frightening statistics of pollution from refineries, automobiles and humans in general, and people around the world are doing something about it.
Today is the internationally recognized Earth Day, a special day set aside for recognizing the planet and telling its inhabitants how we can change our lifestyles to keep it a beautiful place.
Today in the Kansas Union there will be a booth with information about the environment. Earth Day remind people that this is their environment and they should take care of it.
Although gallant efforts to minimize
Recycling products and walking are two simple ways to save the planet.
litter and make recycling accessible around campus have been made, it doesn't seem to be enough. There are many little things students can do that can make a big difference around campus, such as recycling newspapers and cans or throwing away trash. KU Enviors try to make sure that students realize that every day is Earth Day. Members are involved in projects such as preserving the Haskell Wetlands, implementing bike lanes on campus and around the city and recycling. The recycling committee of KU Enviors is
working on a campus-wide recycling project.
KU Environers also will be recognizing Earth Day with a "planet party" Saturday on the Allen Field House lawn. The free celebration from 1 to 6:30 p.m. will include guest speakers, informational booths and bands.
Earth Day helps us realize that we can affect the environment. Whether it is recycling, planting a tree or walking instead of driving, every little effort adds up. So today and every day, instead of just throwing away newspapers or aluminum cans, please make an extra effort to keep Mother Earth beautiful. For more information on how to contribute to saving the planet, check out the KU Environics Web site at kuhttp.cc.ukans.edu/~environs/
CATHY PIERCE FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Ignorance aids sexual misconduct
Twelve claims of sexual harassment have been filed at the University of Kansas since October 1996, said Danielle Dempsey-Swopes, associate director of the Office of Equal Opportunity.
Now that the army is investigating more than 100 claims of sexual misconduct at 30 of its bases worldwide, the issue of sexual harassment is receiving national attention. But it's a local problem too.
"It's one of the main issues for our office," said Dempsey-Swopes, although she pointed out that the number of claims was relatively low for such a large population.
And many students still do not know enough about sexual harassment to detect it or realize if they unwittingly may be harassing someone else. As members of the University community, we all need to be informed about sexual harassment.
According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, sexual harassment is "unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when ... submission to
Twelve sexual harassment claims have been filed at KU since October.
such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual's employment."
Thus, sexual harassment can run the gamut from generalized sexist statements to sexually explicit jokes. Although many people think sexual harassment is rare, it affects 40 to 60 percent of working women and similar proportions of female university students nationwide, according to the American Psychological Association.
Although some critics find it silly to label "flirting" or sexual jokes as harassment, studies show that most harassment has nothing to do with sexual or social interest. Rather it's offensive, frightening and insulting.
research shows that fewer than one percent of complaints are false. In fact, even women who are sexually harassed rarely report it for fear of repercussions.
Dempsey-Swopes said the majority of cases her office handled were between university employees and their supervisors, rather than students and faculty.
Another popular myth is that some women make up sexual harassment stories for revenge purposes. But APA
Once a claim of sexual harassment is reported, the Office of Affirmative Action investigates. Based on the findings, the office can impose one of five sanctions: dismissal, disciplinary warning, suspension, written warning or public censure. Dempsey-Swopes said each case was evaluated individually.
"I think students are fearful of coming forward." Demisevsky Swones said
Those interested in learning more about sexual harassment can attend "Recognizing and Coping with Sexual Harassment" from 7 to 9 tonight at the Pine Room in the Kansas Union. The program is sponsored by the Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center.
Students and faculty should be aware of what constitutes sexual harassment
KANSAN STAFF
LAURA WEXLER FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
NEWS EDITORS
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LATINA SULJIVAN ... Associate Editorial
KRISTIE BLAST ... 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
LINDSNEY HENRY ... Campus
DAVE BRETTENSTEIN ... Features
PAM DISIMAN ... Photo
TYLER WIRKEN ... Photo
BRYAN VOLK ... Design
ANDY ROHRBACK ... Graphics
ANDREA ALBRIGHT ... Wire
LZ MUSSEB ... Special sections
AEHICA VEAZEY ... News clerk
ADVERTISING MANAGERS
ADVERTISING MANAGERS
HEATHER VALLER . . . Assistant retail
JULIE PEDLAR . . . Campus
DANA CENTENO . . . Regional
ANNETTE HOVER . . . National
BRIAN PAGEL . . . Marketing
SARAH SCHERWINSKI . . Internet
DARCI MCLAIN . . Production
PENSA PICTOTTE . . Production
ALLISON PIERCE . . Special sections
SARA ROSE . . . Creative
DANA LAUETZ . . Public relations
BRIAN LFEVEVRE . . Classified
RACHEL RUBIN . . Assistant classified
BRIGET COLLYER . . Zone
JULIE DEWITT . . Zone
CHRIS HAGHIRIAN . . Zone
LZ HESS . . Zone
ANTHONY MIGLIAZZO . . Zone
MARIA CRIST . . Senior account
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 columns: Should be double-spaced typed with fewer than 700 words. The writer must be willing to be photographed for the column to run.
All letter and guest columns 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@kansan.com) or LaTina Sullivan (isulllain@kansan.com) at 864-4810.
Columns
We are all just stooges stumbling through life
I've got to be the biggest idiot on earth.
After 25 years of bumbling, mumbling, stammering and stumbling, I have reached this undeniably true observation. My life has been doused with moments of awkward foolishness, and I've finally fathomed the wretched truth.
I am a complete numskull.
My credentials: As a budding 13-year-old dolt, I forgot mid-step how to walk up stairs and tumbled down an entire flight of concrete steps. Two years later, I managed to hit a parked car approximately 2.7 seconds into my first driver's license test.
Tara Complexionism.
I am honest enough to include myself in the worldwide band of boneheads. In fact, I nominate myself as lifetime chairman of the chumps.
Once I got my license, being the unquestionable imbecile that I was, I decided to get a fake I.D. too. I was pretty impressed with the one I had attained and had shown it off so much that a group of people sent me to a nearby liquor store with their money and orders. The clerk was skeptical and amused as I plopped down a couple hundred dollars worth of Mickey's Malt Liquor 40s on his counter.
When I took the bogus I.D. from my Velcro wallet with a shaky hand, the clerk and I simultaneously noticed the card I had left underneath it; my blazing gold Southeast High School I.D. To this day I still break into a nervous sweat when I make a purchase in a liquor store.
In a laundromat in Europe, I once paid the equivalent of $75 to get my laundry back from a sweet Italian woman who had carefully washed and folded my plaid boxers and white socks. I paid something like eight billion lira. Thanks to a confusing exchange rate, I was convinced at the time that somehow I had gotten a good deal.
But college is a period in which the dim light bulb over one's head is to supposed to be replaced with a fresh 100-watt bulb, right?
Not bloody hotly!
My freshman year began with a scene that I am still so humiliated by that I feel compelled to share it. I was moving into the residence hall, and declaring an early major in mental deficiency, I simply had too much big stuff to carry. My resident assistant, himself an oaf who had eaten too many powdered doughnuts to give me a hand, suggested I go down to the commons area and ask the guy at the desk for a dolly to help me lift and carry the really heavy pieces.
I did as I was told, but in my slow-witted Wichita upbringing I had never heard of a dolly. I approached the desk and asked if "Dolly" was in. I got a blank stare. Somewhat agitated, I explained that my faithful R.A. had sent me down here to get some busy girl named Dolly to help me take my stuff up seven flights of stairs.
I was told there was no one working there named Dolly and then quickly schooled on the meaning of a dolly: a small-wheeled trolley used to carry heavy and awkward objects. Confused and frightened, I took the strange contraption and promised myself never to return to the commons area.
What's my point? All I've done here is prove my own ineptness. So, to make myself feel better, I have developed a theory.
All people are idiots. It's not just me. In our great slapstick comedy of life, we are all stooges wandering in a brainless stupor. When given the chance, we members of the poor, befuddled masses will always make fools of ourselves, simply because we are ignorant, clumsy and inarticulate beings.
Something like 80 percent of the population believes it is of above-average intelligence. As for me, I'm just hoping that I'm not more feeble-minded than my neighbor who got pinned beneath his garage door. Twice.
Jeff Rubv is a Wichita graduate student in journalism.
Students should build friendship with parents
Imagine that it's finally Friday night. After a stressful week, you are ready to go out and are waiting for your friends to call. When the phone rings, you pick it up and say a cheerful hello. You hear a familiar voice, but it isn't your friend. It's your parents. They're really excited because they've decided to travel around the country, and they want you to join them.
they want you to join them?
How would you respond?
How would you respond?
Just think: You'd get to travel the country for free. Man, it's too good to be true, you think.
But with my parents?
Many of us would hesitate to commit to the trip with our parents and probably would look hard for some excuses. Or maybe we would hope that our parents really meant to say that they would pay for us and a guest to go. I hope
Those who would take the last choice are being selfish and insensitive. Don't we owe our parents everything from our first day of life? Most of our parents have sacrificed their lives for us. We should not take for granted what they have given us. They are not asking us to pay them back financially. Nevertheless, we have a moral responsibility to pay them back when we are grown up and able to. Neglecting this responsibility seems to stem mostly from our selfishness.
I'm wrong, but many of us would probably take our parents' money for a trip, but would avoid going with them.
In situations like this, many of us know what we should do but still don't fulfill our responsibilities. We say, "I know, I know," but we do nothing.
Distancing ourselves from our parents seems to come from our lack of concern about aging. Most of us are aware that we won't be young forever, but we don't realize that it won't be long before we see our own wrinkled faces in the mirror.
Time is relentless. Look back on your days.
Look at pictures from your childhood. Our young blood sometimes keeps us from realizing the simple truth of our biological destiny. Life is short.
Enjoy life, not only with your friends but with your parents.
Before our parents had us, they were people just like us. They have been there for us all of our lives, whenever we needed them. Now we are grown up and are strong enough to stand on our own two feet. But we too often distance ourselves either physically or emotionally from these people who have supported us every day of our lives.
Put yourselves in your parents' shoes and think hard about your relationships with them. Time flies like an arrow. Be with your parents while you still can.
This is one of the most callous acts we can ever commit. Now it's our turn to be there for our parents, not only as a son or a daughter but as a lifetime friend. We can build the best friendship with them as long as we are willing to, because we have been through so much with them.
Namkyu Park is a Chongju, S. Korea, Ph.D. candidate specializing in English as a second language.
Letters
Editorial muddled the facts of minor squabble
In your April 10 editorial, University employee's squabble embarrassment to entire school, which concerned the flare-up between Tom Hutton and Richard Kershenbaum at a Classified Senate Public Relations Committee meeting, you are guilty of distorting the truth. You state that there is a dispute between Classified Senate and the Graduate Teaching Assistant Coalition. This is not true. It never happened.
Your editorial seems to imply that there were negative opinions about graduate teaching assistants expressed by members of the Classified Senate during that meeting. This, also, is simply not true. As a participant of that meeting who was seated between Hutton and Kershenbaum, I can assure you that no classified employee said anything that could be construed as critical of GTAs or their coalition. What I heard were two private opinions expressed in a public meeting that unfortunately have been made more public and given much more attention than they deserved.
If I didn't already know about this situation, after reading your version, I might believe that someone resigned from his job rather than from Classified Senate. And finally, what did the comment, in bold print and out of context, about University Council's willingness to work
In many ways this muddled editorial raises more questions it answers and has a tendency to jump to unwarranted conclusions. You criticize someone for publicizing opinions of fellow University employees, but isn't it the media and especially the Kansan who have granted the most exposure to these opinions? You say that this fight was absurd in the first place simply because it happened. Please. I know you can do better than that. The fight might very well have been absurd, but not just because it happened.
I realize that you are preparing for a career in journalism and that the Kansan is in some ways a laboratory and learning device, but what you publish has an impact on real people, and more effort should be made to verify your facts.
with, not against, other employees have to do with anything? How did University Council get involved?
The classified employees of this University are here doing often thankless tasks for low pay and with little expectation that the situation will improve; yet if they did their jobs as irresponsibly as the editorial writer, the University would have to shut down in a matter of days.
If there is any embarrassment to the University concerning this tempest in a teapot it stems from the lack of professionalism and good judgment in the student newspaper, which elevated what should have remained somewhat tawdry gossip to the status of news and eventually editorial opinion.
As far as GTAs are concerned, I think they are a lot like everyone else at this University — students, faculty and staff. We are all trying to do the best we can with what little we have, and by and large I think we're doing pretty well.
Mike Auchard past president, Classified Senate