OPINION
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PUBLISHED DAILY SINCE 1912
CRAIG LANG, Editor
CRAIG LANG, Editor
SUSANNA LOOF, Managing editor
KIMBERLY CRABTREE, Editorial editor
TOM EBLEN, General manager, news adviser
4A
Thursday, April 17, 1997
Jeff MacNellv / CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Editorials
Lack of funds from legislature puts technology on hold at KU
Technology must not be ignored. The decision by the State legislature to allocate no funding for technology at the University of Kansas is reprehensible. By denying funding to further this aspect of KU students' education, it is hurting the education potential of the state's flagship university.
Technology is vital to education. Of all aspects of life in the last century, technology has changed the most. Because the University is preparing students for jobs after graduation, there is no ignoring that technological updates can help students. The legislature is sacrificing students' futures for budget dollars.
Administrators will get a 2 percent increase to finance daily operations. Faculty members stand to gain a 3.5 percent increase in salary. Even
Without any money for these improvements students will suffer.
financial mess caused by linear tuition will be smoothed by state funds. The well-being of the students, however, will be ignored.
As it stands now, students will finance technology through the $800,000 they currently pay in technology fees. However, this is a far cry from the $12 million originally requested from the Legislature. Improving technology in all aspects of the University now must be put on hold, or plans must be changed. The overall effect of all of this, of course, is to hurt the student.
Chancellor Robert Hemenway was
quoted in the Lawrence Journal-World as being pleased with the way the budget turned out.
Legislators should see beyond the bottom line of their budget reports. Taxpayers need to realize that technology and education are two of the most worthwhile programs their money can support. Despite the size of the allocation requested by the University, education should, without a doubt, be given priority over the pocketbook.
Technology must not be ignored. Students need to be kept aware of state-of-the-art developments — especially in more technical majors — and not given lowest priority. If $12 million is too much, then compromises can be made. But surely, the benefits of education are worth more than the state has given.
GERRY DOYLE FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Legislators in dark without input
Recently, the Kansas legislature passed its final decisions about the University of Kansas' funding for next year. Among those figures, the amount allotted for technology was zero. What does this mean for students? The enrollment at the University continues to rise, and more instructors require that assignments be typed. As the Internet and computers become a greater part of our daily lives, students will be left standing in lines at the already inadequate computer centers on campus so that they can type papers, do research and check e-mail.
Why, then, did legislators fail to give the University money to enhance computer labs and other areas in need of more modern technology? Although they were lobbed by the Board of Regents for the technology money, perhaps that didn't make enough of an impression as to just how imperative
Students should make an effort to convince legislators of our needs.
technology is to a university, especially one like the University of Kansas. As in many cases, the men and women who make many financial decisions for the University simply did not hear the students' side of the issue.
Sophomore Abby Kepka, a member of the Student Legislative Awareness Board, said that the best way for students to influence the University is activism oriented toward important issues.
Also encourage parents and friends to write letters. Kepka said that letters from parents about University funding were especially convincing, as parents are often the ones paying the education bills and the taxes that finance the University, as well as the legislator's salary.
tion is to give a personal anecdote that pertains to the issue, such as telling about the time you stood in line for four hours to get a terminal in the computer lab so you could type your psychology paper.
In order for students to influence funding and many other areas, they must make their voices heard. Find an issue which you feel strongly about and write your representative about it. Encourage friends to do the same. Legislators can only make decisions beneficial for us if we take the time to tell them what we want.
The best way to reach legislators is to send a short, intelligent letter to your congressional representative with your complaint or request, Kepa said. One of the best ways to get their attentions until my face was frozen in permagrin. I waited in an indeterminate number of reception areas and was the subject of who knows how many sizing-up stares. In truth, I kissed more butt than Eddie Haskell.
BEN SHOCKEY FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
LA TINA SULLIVAN ... Associate Editorial
KRISTIE BLASI ... News
NOVELDA SOMMERS ... News
LESLIE 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
VEAERZEY ... News clerk
NEWS EDITORS
ADVERTISING MANAGERS
ADVERTISING
HEATHER VALLER ... Assistant retail
JULIE PEDLAR ... Campus
DANA CENTENO ... Regional
ANNETTE HOVER ... National
BRIAN PAGEL ... Marketing
SARAH SCHERWINSKI ... Internet
DARCI MCLAIN ... Production
DENA PISCOTTLE ... Production
ALLISON PIERCE ... Special sections
SARA ROSE ... Creative
DANA LAUZET ... Public relations
BRIAN LEFEVRE ... Classified
RACHEL RUBIN ... Assistant classified
BRIDGET COLLYER ... Zone
JULIE DEWITT ... Zone
CHRIS HAGHIRIAN ... Zone
LIZ HESS ... Zone
ANTHONY MIGLAZCO ... 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.
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.
How to submit letters and guest columns
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 (lusillian@kansan.com) at 864-4810.
Column
Family feuding spoils pomp, circumstance
Behold graduation.
It's what I've been working toward for the past half decade. It's dominated every class I've taken, every class I've dropped, every instructor I've disagreed with, every Friday "accidentally" slept in, and every paper I've ever written.
And after six years, three schools, six majors, 11 different addresses, two degrees, two major relationships and more than my share of bureaucratic, university red tape crap, graduation is staring me in the face.
Actually, it's more than starring. It's like that scene in A Clockwork Orange when the criminal Alex has his eyes clamped open so he can't escape the horrors in front of him.
Maybe I'm being too dramatic. But think about it — and I'm sure a few of you can relate — many of us have never been out of school. It's scary to think that instead of September, my year will actually have to begin in January like everyone else's does. I can no longer rely on the theory of stress management that dictates that I must take a vacation every spring, Christmas and summer. Even if I'm at a job that requires that I work during the school break, it is still a welcome hiatus from something.
Besides closing my personal and professional ties here in Lawrence and making lame promises to keep in touch, I've got to find a job.
In a business suit and heels, I spent my spring break buried in the want ads and made connections until my face was frozen in permagrin. I waited in an indeterminate number of reception areas and was the subject of who knows how many sizing-up stares. In truth, I kissed more butt than Eddie Haskell.
But..
I had one magazine offer me $5 an hour for an associate editor position. In Steamboat Springs, Colo. Temporary, mind you, with no benefits. The guy I spoke to there meant well, but he really believed I should be grateful for his offer.
Thanks, but no thanks. At the risk of sounding like I'm repeating my father's
And for those jobs in between, there is some hope. But I am a reluctant applicant. It's not that I don't want to pack up everything I own—includ-
Another company was very interested in hiring me into a senior-level position that paid just under $40,000 a year until they found out how young I was, All of a sudden, it was, "Ooops. It was a misprint. Human Resources meant to say that 10 years were required, not five."
walking-to-school-seven-miles-uphill-bothways-in-the-snow-with-no-shoes spiels, I've worked too hard all through school, sometimes up to four jobs at a time, precisely to avoid working for minimum wage. Especially when the mountain-area Wendy's pays $7.50 an hour and provides housing for its employees.
ing a collection of several hundred books, 54 plants and two very travel-resistant cats — and hail it back to the mountains. But Lawrence has become my home, despite its lack of hiking and skiing opportunities. This is where I am comfortable. My friends are here, I actually like my apartment, and the guy at the nearby convenience store greets me by name. And I do love the University, especially Stauffer-Flint Hall. I spend at least 10 hours a day there and keep a toothbrush and a spare change of clothes there. My parents and friends call the University Daily Kansan before they call me at home. It may be pathetic, but it's my life.
But before I can truly worry about the job hunt, moving, or that both parents have changed the locks to their respective houses, there is a far greater source of anxiety looming on the horizon. The graduation ceremony.
I cringe when I remember my brother's college graduation. I hope against hope that my family, though I love them dearly, has grown up since then. They divided into two distinct groups, and my stepmother pouted in a corner of the field with her arms crossed and bottom lip pushed out. An uncle, out for another family member's blood, had to be restrained from doing anything felonious. The ones that did get along spent an hour
As with most modern dysfunctional families, there is the task of biding your time between the familial factions — parents and their collective mates/spouses, the stepparent factor and the ones who haven't spoken to each other since somebody married a Protestant in 1961.
May the God of Migraine Prevention be summoned on the weekend of May 18, because my family is coming to town.
Micah Laaker / KANSAN
and a half trying to decide where to go for lunch. Meanwhile, in the midst of petty squabbling, my brother walked in the procession relatively unnoticed. My poor sibling spent "his" day as the local peacekeeping unit.
Since then, people have reproduced, died, moved and gotten married and divorced. There's a smorgasbord of new splinters and old wounds just waiting to fester.
well as the rest of the family fun. I've invited a few of my friends, and although most of them know what level my kin hits on the Family Freakness scale, one or two might be brave enough to show up.
I'm preparing ahead of time to avoid the inevitable mudslinging show that my parents always put on. as
So until then, I wait patiently for my life to go in some direction, *any* direction. I have no idea where I'll be next year, or even three months from now. Once I can get past the insanity of my family, moving and finding someone to hire me, I can, after 23 years, relax. So if you know anyone who's hiring...
Dena Piscolito is a Grand Junction, Colo., senior in English and journalism.
Letters
Ethical choice policy can't be ignored
Recently, a Student Senate coalition added an "ethical choice" policy to its platform, forcing the University to consider student's rights in biology classes. The coalition hopes to prohibit instructors from requiring students to participate in course work, such as dissection, when it conflicts with students' ethical beliefs.
The effort to protect students' rights in biology classes began more than a year ago, with a group called Proponents of Animal Liberation. On April 1, 1996, PAL presented a proposed student choice policy to the director of undergraduate biology. Since then, PAL has collected more than 1,000 signatures in support of this policy. Now that individuals from outside of the animal rights community have offered their support, PAL's hard work should not be ignored.
Simply excusing students from dissection is unfair because it doesn't provide a challenging alternative. That's why PAL's policy requires that instructors provide students with one of many pedagogically sound alternative labs. In addition to the lack of alternatives, students are treated unfairly when their
Michael Schnittt Harrisonberg, Va. graduate student Proponents of Animal Liberation
objections are met with animosity from instructors.
Student beliefs regarding the use of animals in the classroom must be respected. To do otherwise is contradictory to the goals of a liberal arts education, and is also just plain un-American.
However, we must be certain that any policy changes go far enough to really protect students in biology classes.
A student choice policy is not about giving those who are grossed out by the thought of handling dead animals a way out of doing work. Instead, the policy protects students' rights and protects them from discrimination based on their ethical beliefs. It is about time that this issue received attention.
When an instructor does not respect you or your beliefs, it creates immeasurable stress that affects performance in other parts of one's academic life. Therefore, PAL has proposed the creation of alternative lab sections that do not use animals. That way, students with objections can simply register for the alternative lab and never face intimidation or disrespect.
Columnists should focus on real issues
I'm really starting to wonder about the Kansan Opinion page. The March 31 column by Eric Weslander discusses how the "supreme secret" for attracting and keeping hot babes is to become a professional masseur or masseuse. While there was a lot of ironic humor in this column, its focus on using this skill as a gimmick to pick up members of the opposite sex is shallow, if not actually offensive. On April 8, Carson Elrod's comparison of certain "houses" on campus to the Heaven's Gate cult is nothing more than a weak attempt to use a current event to poke fun at the Greek community. This, unlike the first piece, isn't terribly funny and it also doesn't serve much of a purpose other than to ridicule a certain segment of the student population.
Although I have nothing against anyone discussing serious issues in a humorous light, what these recent columns lead me to believe is that either your student writers have run out of important concerns, or the Kansan sometimes needs an actual humor column more than an Opinion page.
Jill Girardo Lawrence graduate student