Opinion THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30, 2010
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Don't use an office as your hotel room. You know who you are.
The weather: hot as balls.
When you're expecting a package, everything sounds like the FedEx truck.
I'm gonna vuvuzela you so hard.
I just found my ex-teacher on OK Cupid. Should I message her?
Are there any non-crazy lesbians in Lawrence!?
I really like sleeping through church; reminds me of my childhood.
I am ashamed to admit I like the new Enrique Iglesias song.
I'm not.
EDITORIAL
Suggestions only useful if enacted
Task forces often are pageants put on for show that bring about painfully incremental.
if any, change.
Let's hope Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little's Task Force on Retention and Graduation will rise above the usual stagnancy of bureaucratic committees.
A KU news release this week congratulated Gray-Little on meeting the task force's first goal by appointing Christopher Hauffer, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, "to direct implementation of the task force's recommendations."
That sounds like merely a single step in the mile-long journey
through KU's administration.
This task force, and the Chancellor's two others for that matter, address fundamental weaknesses of the University, which if properly addressed could drastically improve the quality of education instruction and life for students.
The lofty recommendations from the retention task force's report are all sound and good. Some recommendations might create additional work for students, but it's clear each requirement is designed to enhance the educational experience for students and faculty. And that's a good start for improving the research and academic profile of the University.
That in turn will increase the value of a KU degree and the desirability of KU graduates.
But appointing another faculty member to another leadership position isn't truly progress. Let's just wait and see if these recommendations actually come to fruition.
Perhaps the most important recommendation of the task force is a complete revamping of KU's general education requirements — a change long overdue. Nearly 20 percent of students who have completed their major requirements fail to graduate because of unfulfilled general education requirements, the task force's report found.
That number is disturbing.
That number is disturbing. Instead of complementing one's major course load, general requirements are serving as a blockade to graduation. While some variety in coursework is inherently beneficial, it's obviously gotten out of hand KU requires 30 to 50 percent more general education credit hours than other comparable research universities, the report states.
With this finding, students are reassured of what they already knew: It's increasingly difficult to earn an undergraduate degree at KU in four years.
SEE EDITORIAL ON PAGE 9
TRAVEL
What French protests say about us
PARIS — Two days after an embarrassing early exit from the World Cup, a second strike hit France. As if the one by the county's national soccer team wasn't bad enough.
In place of disagreements between a badmouth player and a largely incompetent coach, Thursday's strike concerned pension reform — a sensitive subject here in France. In short, the conservative government wants to raise the retirement age by two years — from 60 to 62.
The Interior Ministry estimated 797,000 protesters participated in nearly 200 marches across the country, numbers that dwarfed a similar demonstration in May.
I attended the demonstration in Paris, "My first one," I told Thomas, a friend I was staying with for my
Foreign Telegraph
BY MICHAEL HOLTZ mholtz@kansan.com
weeklong stay in the city.
He warned me of the strike on Wednesday night. With one in four metro trains out of operation, navigating the city bustling with summer tourists would be even more difficult come Thursday morning. He then told me about the demonstration. I told him I wanted to go.
By I p.m. Thursday I had squeezed onto the metro headed for Place de la République, the staging grounds
for the demonstration. I could feel the train struggle under the weight of the over-packed cars as it crept toward my destination.
Demonstrators began chanting slogans while unraveling their flags and banners. Dozens poured out of the metro station onto Place de la Republique, where thousands more greeted them.
Inside the sweltering mass of people, French techno blared from dozens of car stereos, union leaders yelled through PA systems and bullhorns, and demonstrators organized themselves for the march to Place de la Bastille.
I approached a group of men who wore neon-green vests and yellow hard hats. They were "tree climbers," as one man described to me in broken English.
"Why are you demonstrating?" I asked him. His answer captured the spirit of the day — It was the only way to get the government to listen.
"If Sarkozy was here someone would hit him," he said in reference to France's increasingly unpopular president.
The pension reforms will likely pass. If the system remains unchanged, France will face a funding shortfall of 72 billion to 115 billion Euros by 2050, according to the BBC. The French government says such reform is necessary given the country's rising public debt.
Americans may find it difficult to sympathize with their French coun-
SEE HOLTZ ON PAGE 9
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