THE UNIVERSITY DAJLEY & ANSON
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My roommate once told me that if you aren't a freshman and you are wearing sweatpants, you are going nowhere in life
KU, your decision not to put spring break directly after daylight savings is seriously letting me down.
Hahah really? Somebody actually thought "this is Kansas University"? Freshman.
Pretending someone likes me by acting like I'm texting on the bus.
Tyler Self for president!
...Why the shout out to Oklahoma State...?
A high school junior was touring campus and he said he was touring Missouri and Kentucky next week. Almost slapped his face.
When is KU going to get double decker buses?
I love my mellophone player.
Withey isn't like a legendary Pokémon.
He is a legendary Pokémon!
I wish student housing would let us have goats. #sustainability
So, there's this girl I barely know, curled up in my chair, bawling her eyes out. Dorm Probz.
Whoever had the Kim Possible ring-tone in Anschutz, thank you for single-handedly improving my horrible day.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13. 2013
What's the sitch?
I heard the FFA editor dresses pretty snazzy. Now if only he could fill the FFA with goat-promoting propaganda.
GOATS! Editor's note: Complimenting me won't help you get in the FFA.
...Wait a minute.
"The NCAA says college sports should be about fun, not making a profit" is the most hypocritical thing I've ever read in my life.
My sore throat isn't a sign I'm getting sick. It's a reaction to no more games at the Phoor
(^'.') > It's Kirby!
Iowa State is our obvious new rival after what their fans did. K-State will always be the annoying little brother.
To the person who punched open a can of oranges because you forgot you owned a can opener — who eats oranges out of a can?
I have a crush on a girl and want to ask her out but I'm scared that she will say no. What do I do? Editor's note: You ask her out.
My body was thinking about rebelling against me today, I preempted its attack with a coffee nuke.
Watching parents and incoming students visiting Mrs. E's trying to figure it out... Hysterical.
No emergency at Wescoe is greater than me not getting lunch.
NCAA sports take advantage of athletes
Thank you KU basketball seniors for allowing the University of Kansas to use you, your likenesses, your athletic abilities and your ability to make millions of dollars. We only hope that our future players will be just as hungry for the game and equally eager for a degree, a shot at the NBA, idol status in Lawrence, but exactly nothing more. Cheers to my home boys. One love. Signed with a smile, Sheaon Zenger.
That's the letter that Zenger should write to Elijah Johnson after March Madness. The collegiate basketball system is beyond fraudulent. Consider a KU game, when the bread winners – the basketball players – focus during a time out, trying to take in everything Bill Self has to say. Meanwhile, KU parades "scholar athletes" onto the court and lauds them for their academic achievements. Spectators paid hundreds of dollars for tickets. They gave stacks for replica jerseys to wear to games. ESPN paid millions for the rights to air the game. In comparison, for his dedication,
Elijah Johnson will get a coupon for his tuition, a voucher for his room and board, and a tiny stipend. No more.
I'm always torn when I watch that parade of athletes. It's great to see athletes earn their degrees. The way that it's financed is what makes me uneasy.
At large universities, basketball and football keep the lights on and the water hot. This goes for Kansas too. Not only do these programs make a profit, the University also requires donations to the Williams Fund to get better seats and nicer parking. This fund finances athletic scholarships. The more Johnson scores, the more all student athletes score. If you're a golf scholarship player, then this is great. While others pay thousands to get into country clubs, you golf and get your degree, even if your sport doesn't bring in enough money to break even.
But if you're Johnson, you've been exploited by the University for four years. You haven't made one cent. Your tuition coupon is your pay. You've got your degree
KU Athletics made millions.
militics made millions.
One more year, and I'll have my degree, too. Johnson and I both are on generous scholarships. But unlike Johnson, I didn't generate millions in revenue that supported other athletes and paid Bill Self $3 million last year. While Johnson watched his hard work put food on the table for KU, I deposited the money I made at my bank. I worked jobs on campus and interned over the summer, something Johnson is restricted from doing, and took it to Capitol Federal.
sure it's not an impermissible benefit. Bill Self can't even give his $100,000 Final Four bonus to his players, many who come from difficult backgrounds.
Johnson can't sell a T-shirt with his name on it. Johnson can't be sponsored by Price Chopper and tell you about fresher ways to save. I can't take Johnson out to dinner without checking to make
Have you read the article by the Topeka Capital-Journal on Jamari Traylor sleeping in a car in high school? Or the Kansas City Star's story on how Ben McLemore's family huddled to keep warm? Did you conclude, "Wow, that is awful. I hope Bent stays healthy and makes it to the NBA so he can afford to fix his family's furnace at home so they have some heat." Or did you think, "Wow, these great kids are being prostituted by KU and the NCAA in the name of academics and amateurism. This is sickening."
Schools don't have to pay their athletes uniformly, but give Johnson something. Give him a shoe deal or a cut of the profit when we buy No. 13 jerseys. Get him some representation from a lawyer whose firm is powerful enough to tell the NCAA that prostitution is only quasi-llegal in Nevada and definitely illegal in
Kansas.
Defending the current NCAA "no pay for play" amateur system is baffling. I pray that KU advances to the Final Four and hope the players jog out onto the court and refuse to play. I hope that Bill steps up and says "$3 million for me and zero for my boys is messed up." It may take time to properly pay revenue-generating players, but Johnson's time is nearly up, so let's have some urgency.
CAMPUS
A college education is valuable. That's why we're here. But it is not priceless, or else I wouldn't be able to afford it and neither would you. Johnson's education has a price too. His services to KU are worth more than that price. It's only right that he sees some of it, not in the form of coupons and vouchers, but in cash.
Duyang is a junior majoring in petroleum engineering and economics from Overland Park. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisDuyang
University event strives to lower energy use on campus
What does it mean to be sustainable, and what can individual organizations, households or individuals do to shift to sustainable practices? The City of Lawrence describes it as a balance between "the needs of the environment, economy, and society" both now and in the future. Meanwhile, the University of Kansas is providing an easy way for students and staff members to contribute to the broader goal of energy sustainability.
Rules for Lights Out are straightforward. Participating buildings cut back on energy usage in an attempt to significantly reduce the amount of energy utilized within a given time period. Their performance is then compared to the same time period in the previous year to determine the success of the effort. The KU Center for Sustainability and Overland Park-based Energy Solutions Professionals sponsor the initiative while faculty and staff learn
March 7 marked the beginning of the second annual "Lights Out!" competition between occupants of university buildings. Despite the flashing branding, students shouldn't expect professors and GTAs to begin boxing on lajhawk Boulevard, but that doesn't mean the event isn't worth notice. Last year, just three buildings - Bailey, Green, and Summerfield - committed to lowering energy usage over a three-month period. This year, 14 campus buildings will compete in an attempt to mimic previous energy saving gains.
how to maximize efficiency. Hopefully, practices implemented during the competition then become ingrained in the culture of the participating buildings, leaving a framework for year-round savings.
The inaugural year of the program yielded impressive results - the buildings consumed 14.3 percent less electricity compared to the preceding year, which, according to the KU press release, would be equivalent to the energy used by 10 homes for an entire year.
Strategies for developing the competition were shared at the 2012 Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education Conference, and participants expressed satisfaction in the outcomes of the competition.
Similar initiatives are becoming more common across the country. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act included billions of dollars dedicated to making federal buildings more efficient, and the Better Buildings Initiative of 2011 hopes to cut energy used by large business and industrial buildings by one-fifth within the next decade. "Lights Out!" reflects many common strategies with these other
programs - voluntary programs, competition-based incentives, training to modify individual behavior and the provision of new and more efficient technologies.
What does this mean for individual KU students? First, don't be surprised if more lights seem to be off in university buildings not in use, and be aware of changes in the behavior of faculty and staff over the next few weeks. Second, consider educating yourself about how your lifestyle can become more sustainable. The City of Lawrence and local utilities provide resources to help residents make decisions to conserve their energy usage and minimize waste generation.
If you live off-campus, a quick Internet search can provide countless tips to save energy each month in your house or apartment. Even if the environmental impact seems tiny, small changes could translate into huge savings. Siel Ju, a blogger for the Mother Nature Network living in Southern California, made drastic changes and reduced her electricity bill to $5 a month. While that might be out of reach of the average KU student, behavioral changes made now could accumulate over a student's lifetime as a renter or homeowner.
So, in the spirit of sustainability, try turning out the lights.
Gress is a sophomore majoring in political science and economics from Overland Park
SOCIAL MEDIA
Networking sites are too personal
I was recently tracked down at a party, grabbed angrily by the shoulders and had,
"Dude, we were really listening to Alt-J the other day?!" yelled into my face. My friends despise Alt-J with a passion. And with the help of the Spotify activity stream that displays my incriminating listening history, they'd caught me with my pants down (and headphones on).
The hyper-socialization of every single activity in our daily lives is inevitable. I realized it back when Facebook started asking me, "What's on your mind?" and suggesting $5 Valentine's e-cards. From now on we'll call this constant stream of gratuous information and advertisement "social philegm." As connected and hip as I am, I'll be the first to admit that I don't care that much about the minutiae of my own daily life.
Just because our overlord social networking can't be stopped doesn't mean I have to sit down and enjoy the invasion. Here's why the incorporation of social networking into every facet of our daily lives is going to suck:
First off, it clutters your brain with social phlegm. Every post and interaction that you're forced on your news feed is giving you a slight shock of endorphins. A psychology professor at California State University, Northridge, released a study that found that these chemical doses were literally addicting and build on one another. It's a stressful compulsion and is definitely distracting you and me from other, more useful thoughts and activities (such as making pancakes or playing ping-pong).
Finally, it isn't healthy for relationships of any kind. Even back in its nascent form, when Myspace was still relevant and Facebook was mostly for photo-sharing, social networking wasn't helping anyone keep that text-box marked "in a relationship." Overexposure to friends and significant others creates tension and unnecessary opportunities to offend one another. We've all heard, "Oh my God, can you believe he/she liked her/his
Second, it is just another slew of opportunities for Facebook to monetize its service and sell your profile to advertisers. My Google searches are being used to sell me things. The methods used in target advertising resemble the shadier parts of the Patriot Act, I'm just saying.
status, he/she is such a [gender-neutral expletive]!!"
The nail in the coffin was the "seen" function, which has spoiled conversations left and right. There is genuinely no good reason the sender has to know when I opened their message. It's more social phlegm that only risks hurting feelings.
Is it only human to assume that your friend is maliciously ignoring your text when in reality they're just busy doing the dishes and can't type on their phone with soapsups all over their fingers? I'd say so.
I realize that I'm not being manhandled into using Facebook, nor is anyone else. My prediction for the future of social media is thus a bleak one: a backlash against its digital shackles. It's only the natural ebb and flow of trends. And just as bell-bottom jeans and side ponytails were violently thrown back into the '80s, so will Facebook and Twitter. Already, droves of users have deactivated their accounts and relegated themselves to less-connected websites explaining, "It's just not worth the headache, man."
Mv vision for 2020 includes a wildly popular reprinting of "Walden," people moving to cabins in the Appalachians to find themselves and chop firewood, and lots of flannel. As of now, I'm not all that opposed to it. Maybe what America needs is a revitalizing weekend away from social saturation to give it some perspective and put it on the right track to kick its Farmville addiction. There's only one way to find out.
So pop some Micinex, deactivate that 'facebook and hock a big lootie' to social phlegm; you'll be able to say you were disconnected before it was cool.
Kenney is a freshman majoring in political science and journalism from Shawnee.
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