Opinion THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2010
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--other members of the Lawrence community who she said put forth a lot of effort to get this project passed.
--other members of the Lawrence community who she said put forth a lot of effort to get this project passed.
I did really well on my diet for two whole weeks before I got stoned and shared a whole pack of Oreos with my best friend.
One of these days I'm going to have the courage to do Chatroulette
--other members of the Lawrence community who she said put forth a lot of effort to get this project passed.
Good morning. On this day we become legendary. Everything we ever dreamed of.
Warning: Hippies will be out in full force on 4/20. Beware of drum circles.
--other members of the Lawrence community who she said put forth a lot of effort to get this project passed.
Maybe, just maybe, she can't do better.
--other members of the Lawrence community who she said put forth a lot of effort to get this project passed.
To the girl whose boyfriend was lying in the middle of 11th St. on Saturday night: You can do better.
--other members of the Lawrence community who she said put forth a lot of effort to get this project passed.
--other members of the Lawrence community who she said put forth a lot of effort to get this project passed.
Sometimes when I see a hot girl, I think "Wow, she poops too," and it ruits it for me.
Hipsters love picnics.
--other members of the Lawrence community who she said put forth a lot of effort to get this project passed.
--other members of the Lawrence community who she said put forth a lot of effort to get this project passed.
You know that thing you wanted last night? I had it all along and didn't even bother to tell you.
--other members of the Lawrence community who she said put forth a lot of effort to get this project passed.
As far as being a college kid goes, I've failed.
Overheard on Mass Street:
"She is a slimy tart — a real slut from hell."
--other members of the Lawrence community who she said put forth a lot of effort to get this project passed.
--other members of the Lawrence community who she said put forth a lot of effort to get this project passed.
"Johnny Tsunami" was on Disney Channel this weekend. My childhood has been retrospect
--other members of the Lawrence community who she said put forth a lot of effort to get this project passed.
Ridin' solo is the only way to do it.
--other members of the Lawrence community who she said put forth a lot of effort to get this project passed.
Sometimes you just got to look at yourself and say,
"DAMM! You're sex!"
--other members of the Lawrence community who she said put forth a lot of effort to get this project passed.
I just spent the last ten minutes pretending to fly my toy U.S.S. Enterprise around the room. I think somebody faked my birth certificate. There's no way I'm 20 years
--other members of the Lawrence community who she said put forth a lot of effort to get this project passed.
Hey, white liar!
--other members of the Lawrence community who she said put forth a lot of effort to get this project passed.
Hey, dark truth!
--other members of the Lawrence community who she said put forth a lot of effort to get this project passed.
I hate, hate, hate my roommates.
--other members of the Lawrence community who she said put forth a lot of effort to get this project passed.
Love is a beautiful lie that most people prefer when the truth hurts.
--other members of the Lawrence community who she said put forth a lot of effort to get this project passed.
EDITORIAL
Potter Lake dredging needed, but could have been avoided
When Student Senate approved spending $125,000 to dredge
$125,000 to dredge Potter Lake a few eyebrows were raised. Although there is good reason to feel a little bit of sticker shock, the lesson to be learned is that this one-time cost could have been avoided had the lake been maintained throughout the years
According to a KU news release Potter Lake has only been dredged once — in 1957 — since it was completed in 1911. For a university that values tradition, cleaning one of its important landmarks only once in almost a century is unjustifiable. The cleaning of this lake should have taken place more consistently. We are now, quite literally, paying the price for our decades of neglect.
The students who were proactive in wanting to preserve the lake and its history deserve a lot of credit. Once the dredging is completed, the fight for its continued preservation rests on University administrators and students on campus. The Potter Lake Project, a student-led group, invested a great deal of effort to ensure that funding for the project passed by Student Senate.
Melissa Allen, the vice president of the Potter Lake Project, credited
"We are all very excited," Allen said. "It has been a lot of work from a lot of people in the community."
Matt Nahrestt, president of the Potter Lake Project, said next year marked the lake's centennial and he hoped the Lawrence community would "welcome back Potter."
Allen said the funding from Student Senate is only for dredging the lake. However, other measures have been developed to help maintain the quality of the lake when the dredging is complete.
Additional funding will be provided by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA), which will work to reduce soil erosion and runoff that flow into the lake, according to a KU news release. The ARRA will contribute $200,000 which will be used to upgrade inlets on Jayhawk Boulevard and install a sedimentation basin to collect runoff.
Although the dredging should take precedence, these other projects are significant in keeping up the quality of the lake. For example, past runoff has led to what has been described as
"overnutrition of the water" and has resulted in a large growth of oxygen-sucking plants that kill fish and other organisms that inhabit the lake. In the same news release, Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little said these projects "should restore the ecological balance of nutrients and oxygen in the water." These preventative measures are a positive step in working to maintain the quality of the water in the lake.
The project is set to begin in June and should be completed by the start of the fall semester, Allen said.
When students return to campus in the fall they will be greeted by a cleaner lake. However, for this to last, we need to take responsibility by continuing to preserve and maintain the cleanliness of the historical landmark
Although the expensive procedure of dredging the lake is needed, the costs could have been avoided if Potter Lake had been consistently cleaned during its 99-year history.
— Kate Larrabee for The Kansan Editorial Board
WHAT'S UP WITH THAT? Commentary on Facebook relationship statuses
Stuff KU Students Like
BY JOEL PETTERSON
ipetterson@kansan.com
When you're about to declare the new love of your life with a Facebook relationship status update, remember one thing; If and when this relationship goes horribly wrong, everyone will know. And they will react.
When that painful and messy breakup finally happens, there will be some who attempt to comfort you with sad face posts on your wall, but there will also be the select few who have patiently waited for that day and will then declare their secret love for you by tactfully "liking" your new single status.
Shameless and tasteless? Maybe. But anyone who "likes" a breakup status should also be immediately added to the list of rebound relationship candidates, therefore easing the pain of a love gone sour.
BY ALEX ESPOSITO
aesposito@kansan.com
Why do people comment when a person's relationship status goes from "in a relationship" to "single?" It draws attention to something that's probably painful for at least someone involved.
If your friend's relationship status changes don't "like" it. Also, steer clear of obnoxious comments such as, "What happened?" or "I'm so sorry, you deserve the best guy in the world!"
Not only is this extremely awkward for all parties involved, but it's annoying to see in a newsfeed. If your Facebook friend got dumped, shoot them a message or do that antiquated thing our parents used to do by actually picking up the phone (OK, cell phones count).
Be a real friend and ask if they need to talk or hang out, but don't make their breakup even more public than it needs to be.
SEXUAL HEALTH
Mixed signals or crossing a line?
That girl smiled at you so she must be interested, right? You decide to be brave and take the next step by asking her out to watch a movie at your place or even by offering her a little make-out session after class. You think she made it clear that she would want that.
April is Sexual Harassment Awareness Month. Although this is sending a necessary message, simply designating these 30 days for awareness is yet another example of a limited time period being dedicated to something that should receive attention all year.
However, I urge caution: this could be considered sexual harassment. Although not all actions as those described above need to constitute a violation against Title VII of the Civil Rights Act or the Kansas Act against Discrimination, they could, if the target of your come-on feels violated.
In many cases, harassment is not based on bad intentions. We think that we would never deliberately harass someone. Yet, things that seem harmless and innocent to us may make others uncomfortable.
In 2008, 13,867 charges of sexual harassment were filed in the U.S., according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In filing these reports, women lead the way. In fact, only 15.9 percent of the reports were charged by men.
Let's Talk about Sex
To protect those who feel victimized, the University has a policy where the victim doesn't have to tell the offender that they are reporting harassment.
The University takes other steps to protect students from experiencing sexual harassment. For example, you probably got a brochure about sexual harassment policy with enrollment. In fact, it's probably still where you tossed it when you came home from orientation.
BY CAROLINE BLEDOWSKI
cbledowski@kansan.com
It's time to un-dust the brochure.
Sex is one of the most intimate things between people. After all, there is a reason many teenagers want to wait until they feel old enough to appreciate sex, or why there are so many indecency laws and guidelines for media and public places.
Sex brings many positive things.
But sex needs to be wanted by both
(or more) who are involved.
Sexual assault can ruin a person's ability to be in a relationship, which is a basic need of human beings.
When a person you trust, such as a friend or a teacher, violates your privacy and makes you feel uncomfortable or afraid, you may not be as willing to trust the next person because you think they may do the same.
Although no one expects to be the victim of sexual harassment or assault, obviously it does happen. The best thing to do is protect yourself.
The easiest way to get information this month is to visit one of the events of "Sexy week," a collection of events all about sex and sexual assault, organized by Delta Force and the Commission on the Status of Women. The group will present between April 19 and 23 on the lawn in front of Stauffer Flint Hall
You can find a link to "Sexy Week" and its event schedule on Facebook on the online version of this column on Kansan.com.
If you want more information about sexual harassment at the University, visit www.hreo.ku.edu, website of the Department of Human Resources and Equal Opportunity. If you want to report sexual assault, you can call them at (785) 864-3686.
Bledowski is a graduate student from Cracow, Poland, in journalism.
GUEST COLUMN
Research touches only tip of iceberg
Editor's note: In her story on 1A, Brenna Hawley wrote about a particularly tense period at the University of Kansas. She wants to tell readers what she learned from the semester-long project.
In November I started a project about the history of campus buildings for a class. As I was sifting through photos in Spencer Research Library, I came to the box of Kansas Union photos. Halfway through the box was a file folder filled with images of the historic Kansas Union fire in 1970. I'd always known about the fire and hoped to write a story about it. I was lucky enough that the 40th anniversary of the event came in the same semester I would be enrolled in an in-depth reporting class.
I started researching what I thought would be simply a project about a magnificent fire, the damage it did and what people remembered about it. When I started making calls, though, I realized that what happened in April 1970 wasn't just limited to that month. It was so much bigger. The late '60s and early '70s were full of racial tension, the looming draft lottery, murder, drugs and a multitude of other issues. The more I researched and read through countless articles, I realized that something happened almost every day — a major fight, a firebombing, a fire.
I want to emphasize that my story, while filled with as much information as I could fit, still touches only the tip of the iceberg. I could only fit a small
amount of what happened in a more-than 3,000-word story. And I suspect that even if I wrote a book about the time period, I would still see only slightly more of the iceberg. But I'm trying to stay loyal as possible to what happened in the space and scope I had.
project I've worked on, in both journalism and the rest of college. The people I talked to and the stories I heard were fascinating. It's also been the hardest project I've worked on. Obviously I wasn't alive in 1970, and everyone I talked to had a slightly (or vastly) different perspective of what happened then. Memories of the same event varied from person to person, and it was interesting to see what events stuck out for them. Fusing all of these views into one story was difficult, and I'm sure in the process, I left some experiences out.
What I wonder most after writing this story is what I would have done. Would I have been an activist? Would I have quit school and left my finals unfinished? Would I have stuck around that summer? I have no idea. But it made me think. It's inspired me to continue working on this project past this story and expand what I've already learned. I love history, and there is so much contained in this Lawrence movement. I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I did researching.
— Brenna Hawley, former editor-in-chief of the The Kansan
1970 Javhawker
This photo appeared in the 1970 edition of the Jayhawker and gives an idea of what campus was like in the spring of 1970. Throughout the late '60s, students on campus became more disenfranchised with the Vietnam War and started questioning the lifestyles their parents taught them. A street community formed in the Oread neighborhood near the Kansas Union, full of students, dropouts, Vietnam veterans and other activists. The community started protesting events on campus and around town that they felt were unfair. SEE THE WHOLE STORY ON PAGE 1A.
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THE EDITORIAL BOARD
THE EDITORIAL BOARD Members of the Kansai Editorial Board are Stephen Montemayor, Brianna Plannetzel, Jenny Torline, Lauren Cunningham, Vicky Pillar, David Stefano, Stedfonne James, Castle Michael Holtz, Tenniburgh and Andrew Hammond.