OPINION
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PUBLISHED DAILY SINCE 1912
CRAG LANG, Editor
SUSANNA LOOP, Managing editor
KIMBERLY CRAFTRE, Editorial员
TOM EBLEN, General manager, news adviser
MARK OZKIM, Business manager
DENNIS HAUPT, Retail sales manager
JUSTIN KNUPP, Technology coordinator
JA YSTEINER, Sales and marketing adviser
Monday. April 7. 1997
Matt Breidenthal / KANSAN
Editorials
Experience of Unite ticket can help it lead University
The roles of student body president and vice president are two of the most high-profile positions students on campus can hold. The president must not only be a leader to students, but he or she must also represent the University as a whole to people outside the University, such as in communities around the state and the Board of Regents. In doing so, experience can only be a positive factor.
That's how The University Daily Kansan's editorial board chose to endorse the Unite ticket of Scott Sullivan, Leawood junior, for student body president and Mike Walden, Leawood junior, for student body vice president.
In their years at the University, both Sullivan and Walden have recognized ways to make campus better, such as improving the bus system and coordinating it with a city-run system, and they have devoted time and effort to effecting change.
It is inevitable that a mixture of people from both coalitions will win seats in
Each ticket displayed qualities essential to getting things done.
Student Senate. Sullivan and Walden both expressed not only the willingness but the desire to work with people outside their coalition, which will be necessary if Senate is to accomplish anything.
However, determining which presidential ticket to endorse wasn't easy. Members of the editorial board debated at length the strengths and weaknesses of each ticket. Our problem, and the one facing voters, is that each ticket showed characteristics we would want in our student body leaders.
Delta Force presidential candidate Jason Fizell, Olathe senior, and vice presidential candidate Matt Caldwell, Overland Park junior, emphasized increasing student involvement in Student Senate as a priority. Student apathy
is a definite problem, and the Delta force coalition is helping a diverse group of people make their voices, and the voices they stand for, heard. Independent presidential candidate Michael Yaghmour, Pittsburgh junior, and vice presidential candidate Dave Hennessey, Ballston Lake, N.Y., are trying to prove that money doesn't make a presidential campaign.
Much work lies ahead for whichever ticket wins. All of the presidential candidates talked about the apathy the average student has toward Student Senate and how that inhibits the work Senate does. But if apathy is to be changed to activism, the president and vice president must be the leaders of that effort. They must do whatever it takes to make students aware of what senate is, who their senators are, how bills are passed, and what senate does for students.
Each candidate talked about the need for change. Now they need to make sure it happens.
KIMBERLY CRABTREE FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Picking candidates a long process
Choosing our picks for the 1997 Student Senate race involved several components.
First, we gave each coalition 24 hours to get its members signed up for an optional interview, which took place this weekend. For the presidential and vice presidential candidates, the interviews lasted about 20 minutes. For the senatorial candidates, the interviews lasted about five minutes.
In the presidential interviews, we asked each candidate four questions. Why are you running?
**What do you see as the most important issue?**
- What can you do for your constituents?
How can you accomplish these goals if you win, but your coalition doesn't?
Although we received many generic
The editorial board looked for candidates who cared about KU students.
responses, we were looking for candidates who would improve the overall well-being of the KU student.
We also were looking for coherent responses and realistic approaches to implementing advocated policies. We wanted more in a candidate's response than just the regurgitation of his or her coalition's platform.
Another criteria for supporting candidates was the enthusiasm that they showed. Energetic and passionate responses were looked upon favorably, while mundane and indifferent responses were indicative of candidates' lack of sincerity. Candidates
were judged by their abilities to convince us that they were sincere and that the views they held were in the best interests of the student body as a whole.
The editorial board spent more than 11 hours this weekend listening to candidates. We felt that this was necessary to review candidates' stances on important issues and provide students with more insight on election day. Although a five minute interview cannot provide a comprehensive character assessment, it can present an idea of a candidate's overall attitude toward Student Senate and what they can do to facilitate better representation of students' views.
If we can give up a weekend, then surely students can devote five minutes of their time voting on election day. Voting is the first step in realizing what we can do if we just open our eyes.
KANSAN STAFF
LATINA SULLIVAN AND NICK ZALLER FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
NEWS EDITORS
LATINA SULLIAN . . . Associate Editorial
KRISTIE BLASH . . . News
NOVELDA SOMMERS . . . News
LESLIE TAYLOR . . . News
AMANDA TRAUGHBER . . News
TARA TRENARY . . . News
DAVID TESKA . . . Online
SPERCER DUNCAN . . . Sports
GINA THORNBURG . . Associate Sports
BRADLEY BROOKS . . . Campus
LINDSHE HENRY . . . Campus
DAVE BrettENstein . . Features
PAM DISHMAN . . Photo
TYLER WIRKEN . . Photo
BRYAN VOLK . . Design
ANDY ROHRBACK . . Graphics
ANDREA ALBRIGHT . . Wire
LIZ MUSSER . . Special sections
AERICA VEAZEY . . News clerk
HEATHER VALLER ... Assistant retail
JULIE PEDLAR ... Campus
DANA CENTENO ... Regional
ANNETTE HOVER ... National
BRIAN PAGEL ... Marketing
SARAH SCHERWINSKI ... Internet
DARCI MCLAIN ... Production
DENA PISCIOTTE ... Production
ALLISON PIERCE ... Special sections
SARA ROSE ... Creative
DANA LAUVETZ ... Public relations
BRIAN LEPEVRE ... Classified
RACHEL RUBIN ... Assistant classified
BRIDGET COLLYER ... Zone
JULIE DEWTIT ... Zone
CHRIS HAGHIRIAN ... Zone
LIZ HESS ... Zone
ANTHONY MIGLIAZZO ... Zone
MARIA CRIST ... Senior account executive
ADVERTISING MANAGERS
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endorsements
President/Vice President:
Scott Sullivan/Mike Walden—Unite
Architecture
and Urban Design:
Chad Boomgaarden—Unite
Adrienne Goodwin—Delta Force
Business:
Chris Gentry-Delta Force Scott Merchant-Unite
CLAS:
Lisa Brady—Unite
Matt Boucard—Delta Force
Kelly Huffman—Unite
Becca Kelly—Unite
Amanda Landes—Unite
Julie Numrich—Unite
Rachel Schwartz—Delta Force
Sarah Shreck—Delta Force
Rochell Votaw—Delta Force
Rachel Wiese—Delta Force
Education:
Kristen Hall—Unite Mary Novascone—Unite
Engineering:
Regan Bramblett—Unite Anthony Nicholson—Delta Force
Fine Arts:
Renee Greenberg—Delta Force
Graduate:
Christine Dixon—Unite
Bob Hershberger—Delta Force
Mark Horowitz—Delta Force
David Stras—Unite
Journalism:
no endorsement
(conflict of interest)
Alok Srivastava—Unite
Off-Campus:
Pharmacv:
Marina Jeffe—Delta Force
Seth Hoffman—Delta Force
Kristen Merchant—Unite
Jeff Morrison—Unite
Tiffany Seeman—Unite
Jason Thompson—Delta Force
Law:
Nunemaker:
Whitney Black—Delta Force
Jen Bonicelli—Unite
Ana Calderon—Unite
Dion Jones—Unite
Natalie Sullivan—Delta Force
Non-Traditional:
Jason Littlejohn—Unite
no endorsement
Letters
Residential:
no endorsement
Social Welfare:
Christy Lamble—Delta Force Erika Nutt—Unite
Tanner also proposed a program which would provide better benefits without the financial problems inherent
On March 18, Michael Tanner from the Cato institute came to KU to present Social Security at the End of the Twentieth Century, the same program that brought all of those filers with aliens to campus.
It is an unfortunate turn of events when the University Daily Kansan, the largest source of news for the majority of campus, can't cover the most timely and important events affecting students.
Tanner has written eight books, appeared on all of the major evening new programs and publish more than a hundred papers on various policy issues. His coming to campus was a major event, and the KU Libertarians promoted it and invested more than $500 into its promotion. This presentation is normally given at benefit dinners at $20 a plate, and those who came to see him speak seemed to think that it was a good presentation.
Social Security reform affects all students
The reason we liked the presentation so much was because Tanner gave a thoughtful and well-rehearsed speech with two parts. We heard the bad news about the failure of Social Security, something we all have gotten used to.
The government's own predictions tell us that the cost of the Social Security program will equal the cost of the rest of the federal government by 2039 and that is the good news. The bad news is that the trust fund, which we were told would start paying after Social Security stops running a profit is full of nothing but treasury bills. The T-bills are actually a loan from the government.
What this means is that when it comes time to use the trust fund, there won't be any money there except for what we pay in taxes. While paying a 40 percent payroll tax, we will have to pay incredibly higher taxes to begin covering the debts which are now accumulating in our trust fund. There is no trust, there is no trust fund.
These kinds of plans are being disc used now on Capitol Hill. If we, as students, still are happy to whine that it really sucks and there is nothing that we can do about it, then we ought to be happy to accept a 40 percent tax on our income and a staggering blow to our families.
In the future, I hope that such presentations will be publicized when they affect us all, and the time is so critical for change.
If a newspapers like the Kansan wants to claim that we need to learn more about Social Security, as it did in a recent editorial board piece, then it ought to inform you to these types of lectures and presentations.
In the meantime, anyone who needs further information can contact the KU Libertarians at one of our Wednesday meetings, or check us out at http://www.ukans.edu/liberty
If money was invested into mutual funds, one could purchase an annuity at retirement which would pay about $1000 a month, slightly better than three times the current returns.
Chris Wiswell
Overland Park senior
with Social Security. What if, instead of paying for other elderly people's benefits by a payroll tax and a massive debt, we instead had to invest the same amount of money into mutual funds in the stock market?
Rock Chalk fundraiser seems inefficient
The Rock Chalk Revue sounds like a good raiser. Surely, it serves other noble purposes, too.
Nevertheless, as a fundraiser, it seems inefficient.
If participants donated 34,300 hours of their times and raised 30,000 for the United Way that's less than $1 per hour.
Participants and supporters, please read this letter as a constructive criticism of a major contribution.
Why not work at jobs for $5 per hour and donated those proceeds? The hourly proceeds from working at those jobs would be more than five times as high as the proceeds from the
Rock Chalk Review, so even if the total hours were reduced by half, the proceeds would still be doubled.
Evan Heimlich
Martboro, N.J.
graduate student
Story unfairly accuses coalition of vandalism
It is clear to all rational creatures that no member of Delta Force committed this act of vandalism, a word used in the headline that has negative connotations and which is now associated with Delta Force.
In fact, Delta Force informed Unite about the incident as soon as they discovered it, and told Unite that no member of Delta Force was responsible for the incident. Delta Force agrees with the elections commission policies concerning the use of permanent markings on the campus proper.
Kevin Bates' article regarding the elections code rule violation allegedly committed by the Delta Force coalition was biased, unnecessary, unconstitutional and should not have been printed in The University Daily Kansan.
In America, people are innocent until proven guilty.
Clearly, Delta Force members are familiar with the elections code and would not commit this act, knowing that if they did, they would surely be caught and fined.
Without proof of a Delta Force member's involvement in the incident, the coalition clearly should not be accused or fined. If it cannot be fined, then it follows that the article was unnecessary and should not have been printed.
The story is incomplete, misleading and conveys the idea that the Delta Force participated in a transgression that it was as powerless as Unite, the elections commission or the University to prevent.
The only result is that Delta Force members now have a negative image unfairly given to them, which will make them have to work even harder to reveal the truth to the University.
Jatinderpal Hundal
Olathe senior