4A
Wednesday, July 24, 1996
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
University suffers from lack of state financing
Last month, the University of Kansas lost Aletha Huston and John Wright, co-directors of the Center for Research on the Influences of Television on Children, to the University of Texas in Austin. Although the couple had been at the University for 20 years, they accepted the offer in Texas, not just for a change of scenery, but for higher salaries and more research funding.
These two esteemed faculty members are only two casualties the University has suffered because it doesn't receive enough funding from the state to increase faculty salaries.
Administrators' salaries lag behind those at peer universities.
Chancellor Robert Hemenway has restructured the administration to reduce red tape and save money. By consolidating administrative positions, administrators' responsibilities have increased, but their
THE ISSUE:
Faculty salaries
Students should lobby the Legislature for administration and faculty salary increases.
salaries do not reflect this shift. Salaries for KU administrators during the 1996 fiscal year were 10 percent less than the average salaries at five peer universities, such as the University of Oklahoma and University of North Carolina, said Tom Hutton, director of University Relations. KU administrators' salaries are 7 percent less than the average at other Big Eight Universities, Hutton said.
Students should urge the Legislature to increase the administrators' and faculty salaries by writing state representatives and asking them to support the increase before the University loses more of its administration or faculty.
KIM BECKA FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD.
Campaign signs stick names not issues, in voters' minds
Campaign signs have begun to pepper the Lawrence community as August primaries approach.
Streets are lined with lawn signs endorsing local and national candidates for their chosen offices. Although these signs effectively advertise the names of candidates to voters, they don't inform the electorate and are an eyesore.
Name-recognition signs do little to promote an intelligent choice by voters. They cater to the vaguest of instincts in people, prompting votes with little or no ideological basis.
The excessive waste involved in printing these signs only to have them fall victim to certain obsolescence should convince the candidates that they only are a marginally useful political device.
Campaign money could
THE ISSUE: Campaign signs
Campaign signs advertise candidate names, but do nothing to inform the electorate of campaign issues.
be spent more effectively on other forms of advertising. For example, mass mailings that detail the stances of the candidates on issues would be a more informative way to persuade voters.
Candidates who continue to deal in simple minded election tactics are catering to an uninformed public.
Elections should be based on issues, not who has the most signs or the most recognized name. Although this ideal may be difficult to achieve there is no better place to begin than in your front yard.
NICK PIVONKA FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
CRAIG LANG Managing editor
SARAH WIESE Editor
TOM EBLEN General manager, news adviser
Jeff MacNelly / CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Campus...Jason Strait
Associate Campus...Dan Geiston
Editorial...Kim Becka
Photo...Edmee Rodriguez
Wire...Craig Lang
Design...Robert Allen
Drew Chief...Julie King
KAREN GERSCH
Business manager
SARA ROSE
Director of Client Services
JAY STEINER
Sales and marketing adviser
JUSTIN KNUPP
Technology coordinator
Business Staff
People who take their time are the embodiment of evil
That could be true, because as an impatient person trying to survive in a world of slow people, I often feel like I'm living in hell.
Business Staff
Campus / Regional mgr...Shelly Wachter
Special Sections mgr ...Rashal Gahil
Production mgr...Karen Gorsch
Assistant Creative dir ...Dana Pisciotto
Classified mgr ...Stacey Weingarten
Zone mgr ...Troy Sauer
If patience is a virtue, then I must be the devil.
I've seen it in the people standing behind the lady at the post office who wants to know every possible way to mail a package. When I see them fidget nervously and look as if they want to shove the woman aside and take her place at the counter, I want to reach out to them and say, "I feel for you."
Perhaps then the military can use impatient people such as myself as secret weapons, sending us to enemy countries to attack unsuspecting slow people in line at an ATM. If that's the case, they can go ahead and send me overseas. I'm ready to maim someone.
Slow people have the upper-hand in this world. While they can do plenty of things to slow down impatient people such as myself, there is very little I could do to get them to speed up.
I have seen evil, and it is in the actions of those who take the longest time to get things done. While I could say more, I am growing impatient and would rather not waste any more of anyone's time.
I've often wondered if people such as myself are being secretly tested to see how far we can be pushed before we finally kill those who delay us.
If you ask me, the real demons are those who move so slowly through the everyday world that they force me to waste my time waiting for them. It's as if their sole purpose is to drive me crazy.
Each day I see these evil beings in a variety of forms. I see them as minivan drivers who pull into the passing lane of the highway with no intention of passing. They take the form of the old lady in the supermarket check-out line who waits until all 200 of her items are scanned and totaled before she decides to begin digging in her purse for her checkbook.
Cratg Lang is a Springfield, Mo., senior in Journalsm.
These creatures make my heart race and my muscles tighten. Even though I may be in a hurry, there's nothing I can do to make them move faster. It takes everything inside me to keep from yelling, "Why couldn't you look for your checkbook before? In that half-hour the clerk was scanning your items, did you really have to wait?"
I can't help it: I'm impatient. It's in my nature, and it is something that I will have to live with for the rest of my life. Fortunately, with the way slow people make my blood pressure rise, that may not be too much longer.
GUEST COLUMNIST
Sure, I have no problem with taking the time to stop and smell the roses, but I prefer to do it on my own. If I have to wait until someone else has finished sniffing, I would rather just move on.
there are times when I am put into a situation where I have no alternative but to wait and let someone else waste precious moments of my life. For example, there are times I have to share a waiter with a customer who has to ask about every item on the menu.
Unfortunately,
- Marc Branham, Lawrence graduate student, who discovered that female fireflies prefer male fireflies who flash at a faster rate than the average firefly population.
"They seem to be looking at each male in the vicinity. The females are choosy."
Of course, I'm too polite to scream,
"Yes, every sandwich comes with fries. Now just pick something, and let the man wait on the other people!" But at the same time, I'm too impatient not to let it make my blood boll to the point at which it feels as if the veins in my forehead will explode.
I know I'm not the only person who falls victim to these monsters. I have seen others get caught in the web of slow people.
"A lot of kids aren't in it for the hobby. The minute they open their pack, they want to look at the Beckett price guide to see what the card's worth. It doesn't even matter who it is."
QUOTES OF THE MONTH
"It's like a huge version of the beams in ID4 they used to destroy the white House."
-Brian Hoffman, owner of Sports Dome, on how the sports card business has changed.
Thomas Armstrong, professor of physics and astronomy, describing an electron beam originating from Io, one of Jupiter's moons.
"I was wishing I had a smart friend who could come over and help." Dan Simons, on why he started his business, Geeks on Wheels, which makes $35-an-hour house calls to help people learn how to use their computers.
"It's just like a convenience store. It's location, location, location." Larry Bartz, owner of Bartz's Fireworks, on why his fireworks business is successful.
Marriage act stands against human rights Constitution
Earlier this month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Defense of Marriage Act. The vote on this ill-conceived legislation wasn't even close; the House passed the bill 342 to 67. This act releases states from having to recognize marriages performed in other states, specifically same-sex marriages.
STAFF COLUMNIST
Imagine my surprise when I opened my mailbox and found a letter from her office. Meyer's response was illustrative of the ignorant bigotry that has dominated the debate in Congress. Although I found her position remarkably unenlightened, I don't begrudge her an opinion. What I do have a problem with is the way she freely admitted that this bill was designed to subvert Constitutional intent.
Prior to the passage of this bill, I wrote to my representative, Jan Meyers, to express my concern about this discriminatory legislation. I didn't expect my plea to change her mind. I simply felt that I had to express my disgust with this election-year posturing and
scapegoating of the lesbian and gay community. I certainly didn't expect a response.
Meyers said in the letter that she didn't think it appropriate for a small group of judges to change the institution of marriage.
The judiciary exists as part of the checks-and-balances system which protects people from the government instituting policies and practices preventing people from enjoying the benefits afforded to all citizens. It is not only appropriate but required that judges make determinations regarding the constitutionality of certain laws, regardless of the popularity of possible changes that may result from a ruling.
According to Article IV, Section I of the Constitution, known as the Full Faith and Credit Clause, states have to recognize the laws of other states. A test case is now pending in the Hawaii State Supreme Court. If the court rules that the state has no compelling public policy rationale for denying civil marriage benefits to same-sex couples, the Defense of Marriage Act overrides the constitutional clause. It tells lesbian and gay people who want to enjoy the emotional, economic and legal benefits of civil marriage that they are simply out of luck if they leave Hawaii.
Meyers' position on lesbian and gay marriages is hauntingly similar to the positions held by the majority of Americans in the 1960s when interracial marriages were illegal. Until the Supreme Court struck that law down in 1967, the law stated that all marriages between a white person and a person of color shall be absolutely void.
Just because Congress is willing to pander to those who would deny basic human rights to a certain segment of our tax-paying population does not mean that it is moral or just.
One year after the Supreme Court decision, 70 percent of Americans disapproved of interracial marriage. The same percentage currently opposes same-sex marriage.
Jan Meyers is entitled to her opinion but should remember that legislation designed to prevent equal treatment under the law is unbecoming of an elected official.
Shannon Tauscher is a Lawrence senior in social welfare.
FATE
By Shawn Trimble